Alan Krueger (1960-2019)

[Cigarbutt]

This opening post has been deliberately put in the general discussion section.

 

He was an academic economist who was able to build a bridge to effective and practical policy-making. He produced the kind of work that caused cognitive dissonance and often contradicted my own conclusions and laid out principles helping to determine if correlation was causation.

 

For those interested, he shared his work on many levels:

 

-Value of education

Relevant to the recent elite school admissions scandal, he produced work showing that elite people going to elite schools will not influence their earning power; the phenomenon is likely more related to social labeling. Using a well-designed twin study and other credible constructs, he showed some of the drivers behind the return on education.

 

-Inequality

He is the person behind the concept of the Great Gatsby curve and explained how effective policy should focus on the related impact on the equality of opportunity, framing the issue in a way that may rally different political flavors

 

-Minimum wage, music industry etc

 

 

Mr. Krueger elevated the level of discussions by focusing on real issues, using an open mind and building on pillars of evidence-based analysis. He represented the kind of governance that we sorely need.

RIP

 

[LC]

Rest in peace.