BINGHAMTON, NY (WSKG) - The death of economist Alan Krueger was announced earlier this week. He was a renowned labor economist. His love of economics began as an undergraduate at Cornell University. Krueger was a professor at Princeton University and during the Obama Administration he was Chair of Council of Economic Advisers.
On the day Krueger’s suicide was announced, Professor Ronald Ehrenberg remembered him to his students in a class at Cornell. Ehrenberg is an economics professor in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at the university.
Ehrenberg remembers an encounter he had with Krueger when he was a graduate student at Harvard. Krueger told Ehrenberg he had been wrong about some detail of economics. Ehrenberg says he wasn’t condescending about it and he was right. It’s something professors hope for from their students.
"With college professors," Ehrenberg said, "the notion that your students will become something more than you are is also something that you hope for. And so it is with sort of great pride that those of us at Cornell have watched Alan’s success."
More than anything, Ehrenberg said he will remember Krueger as one of the friendliest and nicest people.