Krueger nominated as assistant treasury secretary

If his nomination is approved by the Senate, Krueger, who has served on Princeton’s economics faculty since 1987, will head the Treasury Department’s Office of Economic Policy, responsible for helping develop economic policies and analyzing both domestic and international economic trends. In recent weeks, Krueger has already been serving as a consultant for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

On Sunday, Krueger’s colleagues lauded Obama’s selection as a wise decision in a time of economic uncertainty.

“He’s really not a prisoner of ideology. He looks at the evidence and looks at the data and then makes a decision,” said Morris Kleiner, a University of Minnesota professor who published “The Prevalence and Effects of Occupational Licensing” with Krueger last August. “I think that’s someone you’d want in these troubled times.”

“He’s really someone who epitomizes … an outstanding scholar and a great practitioner,” Kleiner added.

UC Berkeley economics professor David Card, who co-authored “Myth and Measurement: The New Economics of Minimum Wage” with Krueger in 1997, echoed Kleiner’s sentiment in an e-mail.

“Alan is an outstanding economist,” Card said. “We are extremely lucky to have him in the Treasury at this difficult time.”

With his experience as the chief economist in the Labor Department under President Clinton from 1994 to 1995, Krueger’s ability to blend his knowledge of academia with his previous practical experience in government makes him uniquely qualified to take on the position, his colleagues noted.

“He has experience in public service. He himself has studied many of the issues that many people care about,” said MIT economics professor Joshua Angrist, who has collaborated with Krueger on several published works. “He has a good general understanding of American economic policy, particularly the labor markets, which are important as the unemployment rate goes up.”

Associate Dean of the UC San Diego Rady School of Management David Schkade said that though he was sorry to lose a colleague in the world of academia, the country will benefit from Krueger’s expertise.

“Alan is on … the very short list [of] the smartest people I’ve ever met,” said Schkade, who has written three papers with Krueger in the last two years. “I think the country should be grateful that he is willing to serve.”

Kleiner expressed a similar sentiment. “He’s one of the most cited economists in the world and probably among the top 10 or 15, I think,” Kleiner said. “It’s a loss for Princeton, but a gain to economic policy and to the U.S.”

Other nominations announced by the White House on Sunday include lawyer David Cohen for the position of assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial specialist Kim Wallace, who is expected to serve as assistant secretary for legislative affairs.

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News of the appointments comes during attempts to fill many of the top positions at the Treasury Department. Of the 15 key positions in the department that require Senate confirmation, only one has been filled.

Wilson School assistant professor Jesse Rothstein questioned the drawn-out process leading up to Sunday’s announcement.

“I think it’s a great appointment,” he said. “I think it’s taken [the administration] too long to get to this point. It’s taken them a while to actually announce the nominations.”

Staff writer Melanie Jearlds contributed reporting.