Krueger began teaching at Princeton University in 1987. He held the Bendheim Professorship in Economics and Public Affairs followed by the James Madison Professorship in Political Economy. 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 reinvigorated the academic debate on the employment effects of minimum wages and spawned a large literature. His books,
Education Matters: Selected Essays by Alan B. Krueger and (with
James Heckman)
Inequality in America: What Role for Human Capital Policies? reviewed the available research relating to positive
externalities accruing to society from increased government investment in educating the children of the poor. In
Inequality in America, he writes: In his book
What Makes a Terrorist: Economics and the Roots of Terrorism (2007), Krueger wrote that, in contrast to the assumption that terrorists come from impoverished, uneducated environments, they often come from middle-class, college-educated backgrounds. In 1994–95, he served as Chief Economist at the
United States Department of Labor. He received the Kershaw Prize, Mahalanobis Prize, and
IZA Prize (with
David Card), and was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Society of Labor Economists, Econometric Society and American Academy of Political and Social Science. On March 7, 2009, he was nominated by President
Barack Obama to be
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy. In October 2010, he announced his resignation from the Treasury Department, to return to Princeton University. On August 29, 2011, he was nominated by Obama to be chair of the White House
Council of Economic Advisers, and on November 3, 2011, the Senate unanimously confirmed his nomination. He also published several books on issues related to education, labor markets and income distribution. Between 2000 and 2006 he wrote for
The New York Times Economic Scene column. Krueger signed a 2018
amici curiae brief that expressed support for Harvard University in the
Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College lawsuit. == Personal life ==