A kind and gentle man. A brilliant economist. A professor who left his mark on his students. An adviser, mentor and friend, as well as a teacher.
That’s how friends, former students and colleagues described Princeton University economics professor Alan B. Krueger, who died at home March 16. In a statement released by the family through Princeton University, the cause of death was suicide.
A Princeton University professor since 1987, Krueger was the James Madison Professor of Economic Policy. He was jointly appointed to the Department of Economics and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He was the founding director of the Princeton University Survey Research Center.
Responding to news of Krueger’s death, Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber said he was “an extraordinary economist and a valued colleague.”
“His brilliant scholarship illuminated many topics, including the value of a college education to students from under-represented groups. We will miss him greatly,” Eisgruber said.
Wolfgang Pesendorfer, the chairman of the Economics Department, described Krueger as “the rare academic who could do it all. (He was) a brilliant researcher, great teacher, fantastic adviser and accomplished public servant. His passing is a devastating loss for all of us.”
During the course of his 32-year career at Princeton University – and in between stints in Washington, D.C., under two Democratic presidents – Krueger studied and wrote about a wide range of topics that included the minimum wage, education, terrorism and ticket prices at rock concerts.
Krueger, working with economists Lawrence Katz and David Card, concluded that higher minimum wages did not affect job creation or hiring. Krueger and Card studied data from fast-food restaurants in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and reached that conclusion.
Krueger also studied the effect that school quality has on outcomes, and especially for low-income students. He also looked at the influence of the gig economy on the national economy, and the opioid epidemic’s effect on the labor force.
Outside of academia, Krueger served as chief economist for the U.S. Department of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1994 too 1995.
Under President Barack Obama, Krueger was assistant secretary for economic policy and chief economist for the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 2009 to 2010, and then served as chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2011 to 2013.
Krueger, who was born in Livingston, earned a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in 1983 and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University in 1987.