Why we need to think more like economists to successfully combat terrorism If we are to correctly assess the root causes of terrorism and successfully address the threat, we must think more like economists do. This is the argument of Alan Krueger's What Makes a Terrorist, a book that explains why our tactics in the fight against terrorism must be based on more than anecdote, intuition, and speculation. Many popular ideas about terrorists and why they seek to harm us are fueled by falsehoods, misinformation, and fearmongering. Many believe that poverty and lack of education breed terrorism, despite the wealth of evidence showing that most terrorists come from middle-class, and often college-educated, backgrounds. Krueger closely examines the factors that motivate individuals to participate in terrorism, drawing inferences from terrorists' own backgrounds and the economic, social, religious, and political environments in the societies from which they come. He describes which countries are the most likely breeding grounds for terrorists, and which ones are most likely to be their targets. Krueger addresses the economic and psychological consequences of terrorism and puts the threat squarely into perspective, revealing how our nation's sizable economy is diverse and resilient enough to withstand the comparatively limited effects of most terrorist strikes. He also calls on the media to be more responsible in reporting on terrorism. Bringing needed clarity to one of the greatest challenges of our generation, this 10th anniversary edition of What Makes a Terrorist features a new introduction by the author that discusses the lessons learned in the past decade from the rise of ISIS and events like the 2016 Pulse nightclub attack in Orlando, Florida.

Education Matters presents in one volume many of Alan B. Krueger's contributions to the economics of education. This invaluable collection of papers, based on his groundbreaking research from the 1990s, has been published in a wide range of professional outlets and has influenced public policy and research in the US and throughout the world. The book opens with an introductory essay explaining the importance of the study of the economics of education as well as providing an overview of the book. The author then goes on to discuss and analyse the important topics in the economics of education, including the economic pay off from attending school for longer, the return to investments in school resources, causes of the increased pay off to education, the contribution of education to economic growth, and racial differences in school quality and their consequences. The final chapter provides a framework for evaluating schools. This fascinating collection of work, from a writer at the forefront of economics and educational research, will be warmly welcomed by academics in the areas of human capital, economics and public policy, as well as by educational policymakers.

Why we need to think more like economists to successfully combat terrorism Alan Krueger was one of the most respected economists of his generation, advising two presidents and helping to instill greater empiricism in economics. In What Makes a Terrorist, he argues that if we are to correctly assess the root causes of terrorism and successfully address the threat, we must think more like economists do. Krueger examines the factors that motivate individuals to participate in terrorism, drawing inferences from their economic, social, religious, and political backgrounds. Many popular ideas about terrorists are fueled by falsehoods, misinformation, and fearmongering. This 10th anniversary edition of What Makes a Terrorist puts the threat squarely into perspective, bringing needed clarity to one of the greatest challenges of our generation.

David Card and Alan B. Krueger have already made national news with their pathbreaking research on the minimum wage. Here they present a powerful new challenge to the conventional view that higher minimum wages reduce jobs for low-wage workers. In a work that has important implications for public policy as well as for the direction of economic research, the authors put standard economic theory to the test, using data from a series of recent episodes, including the 1992 increase in New Jersey's minimum wage, the 1988 rise in California's minimum wage, and the 1990-91 increases in the federal minimum wage. In each case they present a battery of evidence showing that increases in the minimum wage lead to increases in pay, but no loss in jobs. A distinctive feature of Card and Krueger's research is the use of empirical methods borrowed from the natural sciences, including comparisons between the "treatment" and "control" groups formed when the minimum wage rises for some workers but not for others. In addition, the authors critically reexamine the previous literature on the minimum wage and find that it, too, lacks support for the claim that a higher minimum wage cuts jobs. Finally, the effects of the minimum wage on family earnings, poverty outcomes, and the stock market valuation of low-wage employers are documented. Overall, this book calls into question the standard model of the labor market that has dominated economists' thinking on the minimum wage. In addition, it will shift the terms of the debate on the minimum wage in Washington and in state legislatures throughout the country. With a new preface discussing new data, Myth and Measurement continues to shift the terms of the debate on the minimum wage.

"Most economists believe that minimum wages invariably reduce employment, but are they right? In this compelling analysis of the U.S. minimum wage, Card and Kreuger show that recent increases in the minimum wage had no adverse effect on employment. This pathbreaking book suggests that economists know less about what the invisible hand is up to than they let on."--Richard Freeman, London School of Economics and Harvard University

""Myth and Measurement"is an extraordinarily important book. It will rank with seminal works in labor economics, including Gary Becker's "Human Capital," Jacob Mincer's "Schooling, Earnings, and Experience," Richard Freeman and James Medoff's "What Do Unions Do?," and Edmund Phelp's (ed.) "Microeconomic Foundations of Employment and Inflation Theory," The book will interest everyone involved in the minimum wage debates, and it will cause economists to question seriously the models they use and how they do empirical research."--Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Cornell University

"The analysis of minimum wage by Card and Krueger is both comprehensive and provocative. It challenges the received wisdom and is certain to be a major influence on all future work on the topic."--James J. Heckman, University of Chicago

""Myth and Measurement" is an extraordinarily important book. It will rank with seminal works in labor economics, including Gary Becker's "Human Capital," Jacob Miner's "Schooling and Earnings," Richard Freeman and James Medoff's "What Unions Do?," and Edmund Phelp's (ed.), "Microeconomic Foundations of Employment and Inflation Theory," The book will interest everyone involved in the minimum wage debates, and it will cause economists to question seriously themodels they use and how they do empirical research."--Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Cornell University

"In Card and Krueger's hands, the collage becomes a dangerous weapon; the idea that employment has fallen significantly in the wake of minimum wage increases is attacked with both new evidence and a careful look at previous studies."--Charles Brown, University of Michigan

"The most professional work ever done on this highly controversial subject."--Richard Layard, London School of Economics

Building Skills for Black Workers assesses the current gap in education and training between African American and white workers, and explores possible remedies. This multi-author volume begins with an examination of the elementary and secondary education system (K-12) and concludes with an analysis of public and private worker training programs, addressing three broad questions: How do workers acquire the skills needed for upward mobility and career advancement? What is the current gap in education and training between black and white workers? And what strategies would reduce the gaps and improve the labor market outcomes for these workers?

Building Skills for Black Workers assesses the current gap in education and training between African American and white workers, and explores possible remedies. This multi-author volume begins with an examination of the elementary and secondary education system (K-12) and concludes with an analysis of public and private worker training programs, addressing three broad questions: How do workers acquire the skills needed for upward mobility and career advancement? What is the current gap in education and training between black and white workers? And what strategies would reduce the gaps and improve the labor market outcomes for these workers?

David Card and Alan B. Krueger have made substantial contributions to the field of Labor Economics. Their influential work focuses on policy-relevant issues and spans vast and important topics, including: unemployment, minimum wage, migration, measurement error, unions, wage differentials among various groups in the U.S., labor demand, social insurance, and technological change. Card and Krueger have also been extremely influential in econometrics methodology; they were at the forefront of employing an "experimental" approach in their research design and implementation. Both of these IZA prize winners have made significant methodological contributions on instrumental variable estimation, measurement error, regression discontinuity methods, and the use of "natural" experiments. This book provides an overview of their most important work and is divided two main parts: the first section focuses on school quality and the differences in wages across groups in the U.S.; the second part concentrates on the effect of changes in the minimum wage on employment and wage setting. In section introductions, Card and Krueger offer their insight into these two areas and discuss the historical context for their research.

Surely everyone wants to know the source of happiness, and indeed, economists and social scientists are increasingly interested in the study and effects of subjective well-being. Putting forward a rigorous method and new data for measuring, comparing, and analyzing the relationship between well-being and the way people spend their time--across countries, demographic groups, and history--this book will help set the agenda of research and policy for decades to come. It does so by introducing a system of National Time Accounting (NTA), which relies on individuals' own evaluations of their emotional experiences during various uses of time, a distinct departure from subjective measures such as life satisfaction and objective measures such as the Gross Domestic Product. A distinguished group of contributors here summarize the NTA method, provide illustrative findings about well-being based on NTA, and subject the approach to a rigorous conceptual and methodological critique that advances the field. As subjective well-being is topical in economics, psychology, and other social sciences, this book should have cross-disciplinary appeal.