ALAN KRUEGER, a groundbreaking Princeton University economist who provided critical empirical research on fundamental and often hotly debated questions about class size, school choice, educational attainment, and resources in schools, has died of suicide at 58.
Krueger’s research often called into question common assumptions in education. In 2000, as schools rapidly expanded their digital technology, he identified a growing divide between black and white students in access to the internet. A 2003 study found, contrary to other studies of the time, that private school vouchers did not help black students in New York City. In 2011, he found that middle-class white students didn’t actually benefit much from attending a highly selective college, but black and Hispanic students and those from less-educated families who attended selective colleges significantly boosted their lifetime earnings.
