Shocking news today: Noted Princeton University economist Alan Krueger died this weekend. He was only 58 years old. Alan was the chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2011 to 2013. He was also co-author, with David Card, of the famous book that challenged the conventional wisdom on the effects of moderate increases in the minimum wage. Here’s an excerpt from my pretty critical review of their book. Note that he was no fan of the current Democratic proposal to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, as he made clear in a 2015 op/ed in the New York Times.

I never met Alan in person, but we did debate income inequality on NPR in 2014. He was a very civilized debater and I still appreciate that. (Interestingly, he and I weren’t as far apart on occupational licensure as the listeners might have thought.)

Also, although I had a few criticisms of his book on terrorism, overall I thought it was an important contribution, as I made clear in this review. (Scroll down a little over 2/3 of the way.)

From everything I know about Alan, he was a real gentleman. My condolences to his family and his colleagues.