Princeton economist Krueger, 58, dies

PRINCETON, N.J. — Alan Krueger, a groundbreaking Princeton University economist who served as a top adviser in two Democratic administrations and was an authority on the labor market, has died, according to a statement from the university Monday.

The economist took his own life during the weekend, according to a separate statement from Krueger’s family that the university released. He is survived by his wife, Lisa, and two adult children, Benjamin and Sydney.

Krueger, 58, devoted much of his research to the job market and, in particular, to the effect of a minimum wage. His work concluded that a higher minimum wage did not generally slow hiring as many conservative critics have argued.

After serving as a Labor Department economist under President Bill Clinton, Krueger worked for President Barack Obama as a top Treasury official and then as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from 2011 to 2013.

In a statement, Obama credited Krueger with helping revive the U.S. economy after the devastating 2008 financial crisis.

“He spent the first two years of my administration helping to engineer our response to the worst financial crisis in 80 years and to successfully prevent the chaos from spiraling into a second Great Depression,” Obama said. “He helped us return the economy to growth and sustained job creation, to bring down the deficit in a responsible way and to set the stage for wages to rise again.”

Krueger had been teaching at Princeton since 1987. His research extended to such issues as economic inequality and the consequences of opioid addiction for the job market.