Alan Bennett Krueger (born September 17, 1960)
Is an American economist, Bendheim Professor of Economics and Public Affairs atPrinceton University and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. On March 7, 2009, he was nominated by President Barack Obama to be United States Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for economic policy. In October 2010, he announced his resignation from the Treasury Department, to return to Princeton University. He is among the 50 highest ranked economists in the world according to IDEAS/RePEc. On August 29, 2011, he was nominated by Obama to be chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and on November 3, 2011, the Senate unanimously confirmed his nomination.
Early Life
Krueger grew up in a Jewish family[6] in Livingston, New Jersey, and graduated from Livingston High School in 1979.Krueger grew up in a Jewish family in Livingston, New Jersey, and graduated from Livingston High School in 1979.
Career
Krueger developed and applied the method of natural experiments to study the effect of education on earnings, the minimum wage on employment, and other issues.
Krueger compared restaurant jobs in New Jersey, which raised its minimum wage, to restaurant jobs in Pennsylvania, which did not, and found that restaurant employment in New Jersey increased, while it decreased in Pennsylvania. The results were later disputed.
His books, Education Matters: Selected Essays by Alan B. Krueger and (with James Heckman) Inequality in America: What Role for Human Capital Policies? review the available research relating to positive externalities accruing to society from increased government investment in educating the children of the poor. His summary of the available research shows relatively high returns to society from educational investments that have been shown in numerous formal and natural experiments to reduce crime and recidivism. At one point, he concluded he does "not envision investment in human capital development as the sole component of a program to address the adverse consequences of income inequality. It is part of the solution, but not the whole solution. In principle, the optimal governmental policy regarding income inequality would employ multiple instruments, up to the point at which the social benefit per additional dollar of cost of each instrument is equal across all instruments.
