“The Princeton School of Labor Economics" lecture by Nobel Prize-winning economist David Card

David Card, a Nobel laureate and emeritus professor of economics at the University of California-Berkeley, was given the Madison Medal from Princeton University in honor of his groundbreaking scholarship that helped redefine labor economics. He is among a group of economists who pioneered the use of “natural experiments” to study real-world problems. “He dedicated his career to studying immigration, wages, education, and gender- and race-related differences in the labor market to advance the world’s understanding of important policy issues and basic principles of economics,” Dean of the Graduate School Rodney Priestley, the Pomeroy and Betty Perry Smith Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, said in his introduction. Card was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in economics(Link is external) for providing “new insights about the labor market.” He shared the prize with MIT economics professor Joshua Angrist, who earned his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1989, and Stanford applied econometrics professor Guido Imbens. Card’s other awards include the John Bates Clark Medal, the Frisch Medal and the Jacob Mincer Award. In his Alumni Day talk, “The Princeton School of Labor Economics,” Card cited the late Princeton economist Alan Krueger and others. He credited the University’s Industrial Relations Section with transforming labor economics and training generations of graduate and undergraduate students who became leaders in the field, including Princeton professors such as Anne Case and David S. Lee. Card also served on the Princeton faculty, from 1983 to 1996. Card said the “lasting lesson” of his graduate studies and teaching within the Industrial Relations Section was that “a great institution with great support and the right people can make a big difference.” Card also discussed some of his most well-known work, such as a 1990 study analyzing how the Mariel boatlift from Cuba affected the labor market in Miami, and a 1992 study on minimum wages in the fast-food industry in New Jersey co-authored with Krueger. During a brief question-and-answer session, one alumnus asked Card what he’s studying now, to which he responded with a range of topics, from population shifts and immigration to how familial responsibilities affect people’s behavior in the labor market.