On November 17, 2018, a notable American economist Alan B. Krueger paid the first-ever visit to our Institute. During his brief stay, Alan Krueger had an opportunity to meet with our Dean Prof. Shuaizhang Feng as well as the whole IESR faculty, therefore spurring some fruitful discussions regarding economics and academics in general. 

Alan B. Krueger and Shuaizhang Feng 

After learning more about IESR and its ambitious future endeavors, Alan Krueger felt deeply impressed by IESR fast-paced development over the last three years, and in particular – our survey research. However, American economist could not hide his concern about this on-going tension in academic circles that puts a constant pressure on scholars to publish in the very top international journals. According to Alan Krueger, it is very difficult to do with Chinese data, which unfortunately leads to many good papers being denied even the slightest opportunity to get noticed by the international community. Even so, economist says, "the issues in China are so important, so vast and affect so many people – to me, that is a place where I would like to see more research focused".

Alan B. Krueger interacts with IESR faculty       

Later on, Alan Krueger had a chance to share his own recent research that currently splits into three main areas: imperfect competition in the labor market, no-poaching agreements in fast food chains that has to do with labor force participation, and the growth of gig-work. IESR faculty also shared their latest research and discussed it together with Alan. 

Finally, when asked to give a few valuable tips to all of our young scholars who are just at the very beginning of their career, the economist has strongly encouraged them to "love the work that they are doing, raise questions, and work on questions that they feel passionate about trying to learn the answers for". In Alan's point of view – that is absolutely the best strategy for anyone who is willing to succeed. 

About Alan B. Krueger