The world of education lost a giant in the field this month. Dr. Alan Krueger, Princeton University economist and a leading expert on the labour market passed away at the age of 58. Dr. Krueger served as Chairman for President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers and served as chief economist at President Bill Clinton’s Labor Department.

Dr. Krueger’s researched focussed primarily on the labour market but often touched on key political and social issues of the day. In the 1990s, he argued that increases in minimum wage did not necessarily lead to job losses and in 2012, pre-Piketty’s Capital, introduced the notion of the “Great Gatsby Curve” to show the linkages between wealth concentration and social mobility across generations.

Dr. Krueger thought a lot about education and famously declared in one paper that the effects of attending an extremely selective university, such as an Ivy League school, on later earned income was “generally indistinguishable from zero” after taking various considerations into account.

Click here to read more about Dr. Krueger and his study on higher education.