Suicide Alan Krueger, a former adviser to presidents Barack Obama and bill Clinton, shocked politicians and businessmen.
58-year-old Kruger was found dead in his home in Princeton (new Jersey) on March 16. Family Kruger told the press that the man committed suicide without telling the details of the tragedy. The Kruger is survived by his wife Lisa and two children, 28-year-old Benjamin and 26-year-old Sidney.
Alan Kruger. Source: Flickr/cc/Universidad de Sevilla
Friends of Alan Kruger was shocked by his death, as it, according to them, there were no signs. The economist was working on his sixth book, «Rockonomics», which was supposed to come out in June of 2019, he taught at Princeton University.
After working as an economist in the labor Department under President bill Clinton Kruger worked for President Barack Obama as a senior official in the Treasury, and then as Chairman of the Council of economic advisers from 2011 to 2013.
In his statement, Obama thanked Krueger for assistance in the recovery of the US economy after the devastating financial crisis of 2008.
«He prevented a second great depression. He helped us to return the economy to growth and ensure the continuous creation of new workplaces», — the statement says Obama.
Bill Clinton tweeted: «Alan Krueger was a brilliant economist, who conducted a very important research — from studies showing that raising the minimum wage does not increase unemployment, to his recent work showing that opioid epidemic in America has increased it. My thoughts are with his family. We lost him too early».
Alan Krueger was a brilliant economist for the public interest—from his research proving that raising the minimum wage doesn’t increase unemployment, to his recent work showing that America’s opioid epidemic has increased it. My thoughts are with his family. We lost him too soon.
— Bill Clinton (@BillClinton) March 18, 2019
Paul Krugman, columnist for The New York Times, also admitted that he was shocked: «What a horrible thing could happen to the intellectual giant who made America a better place for millions of people?».
Besides the already mentioned studies that raising the minimum wage does not increase unemployment, Krueger has developed and popularized the concept of the «great Gatsby curve».
In simple words — Kruger proved that when the financial gap between the rich and everyone else grows, the ability of people to improve their financial position even more dependent on the economic status of their parents.
The curve was named after the iconic literary character of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jay Gatsby, who grew up from a poor boy from the Midwest to a wealthy bootlegger.
In 2011, Alan Krueger was among the 50 most influential economists in the world.
