Advance, Cornell ILR School's publication for alumni and friends.
Issue link: https://advance.epubxp.com/i/362921
4 Alan Krueger '83 won't tell you, but others will: he is over-the-top talented. "Alan has had an extraor- dinary impact on public policy and what the world knows about economics. He's made monumental contributions from a variety of directions," said Kevin Hallock, the Donald C. Opatrny '74 Chair of the Department of Economics and Joseph R. Rich '80 Pro- fessor of Economics and HR Studies. Considered by many as one of the world's most import- ant living economists, his versatility has left its mark in areas such as compensa- tion, education, the mini- mum wage, labor unions, technology, health insur- ance, crime and terrorism. Yes, terrorism. His 2007 book "What Makes a Terrorist: Econom- ics and the Roots of Terror- ism" upended the notion of terrorists as poor and uneducated. Most terrorists are middle class and often college educated — facts that could be helpful in re- sponse to terrorist threats. "What I like about research is fnding something new, then explaining it to the world," said Krueger, who has a reputation for unbi- ased work in a feld where ideology has been known to creep. "I like to think I'm above the fray. I try to go where the data leads," said the 2013 winner of ILR's Groat Award. Gracious and self- effacing, Krueger began his ILR years fearing the required statistics class, then found "it was a subject I really loved." He's been crunching num- bers ever since, even for President Barack Obama, who appointed him to the White House's Council of Economic Advisers. Krueger served from 2009 to 2013 and was the coun- cil's chief economist during most of his time in Wash- ington. The president credited Krueger as "the driving force behind many of the economic policies that I have proposed that will grow our economy and cre- ate middle-class jobs." Obama publicly thanked him for his "objective, un- varnished advice." "I took that as my charge," said Krueger, recalling the pressure of providing accurate economic numbers pronto under time pres- sure. Sometimes, he and his staff were required to provide information in a matter of minutes. In about 60 policy realms – from immigration reform to the Dodd-Frank Act to the Consumer Price Index – Krueger provided analysis for the president, whom he describes as "a careful reader who loves graphs." The former Cornell Track high jumper, whose public service in the 1990s includ- ed chief economist posts at the Department of Labor and the U.S. Treasury, is now back at Princeton University. As the Bendheim Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, he has returned to academic research. Long- term unemployment and economic inequality are two areas he is pursuing. The battle back from the worst recession since the 1930s has sharpened Krueger's concern about a growing gap between poor and rich. "We need a long-term approach," said Krueger, who earned a doctoral degree in economics from Harvard University. As a Cornell freshman, he planned to become a labor lawyer. Then, "I saw the power of economics to have a positive impact on people's lives." A winner of the IZA Prize, the international gold standard for labor economists, Krueger said, "there's no question that the ILR School put me on the path I'm on." PUBLIC SERVANT SCHOLAR PUBLIC SERVANT T E A C H E R