David Card

David Card is a 2021 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences whose research has reshaped how economists, governments, and organizations understand labor markets. As Class of 1950 Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, he has spent four decades producing some of the most consequential empirical work in the field, consistently challenging received wisdom with evidence that changed minds — and policy.

Nobel economics speaker David Card is best known for his groundbreaking studies of minimum wages, immigration, and education. His landmark 1993 study with the late Alan Krueger compared employment in New Jersey fast-food restaurants before and after a minimum wage increase, using neighboring Pennsylvania as a control. The finding — that the increase did not reduce employment — directly contradicted the prevailing economic consensus and triggered a fundamental rethinking of labor market models that continues to this day. His research on immigration similarly challenged assumptions, showing that large inflows of workers do not necessarily depress wages for native-born workers. Across both areas, Card demonstrated that labor markets are more complex, and more humane in their functioning, than simple supply-and-demand models had suggested.

In 2021, Card received the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, with half the prize awarded for his empirical contributions to labor economics. He shared the prize with Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens. The Nobel Committee specifically credited his use of natural experiments — real-world policy changes that function like controlled trials — to answer questions that had long resisted rigorous analysis.

Four Decades of Influence

Card’s influence extends well beyond any single study. He has published over 100 journal articles and book chapters, co-authored the seminal book Myth and Measurement: The New Economics of the Minimum Wage, and co-edited eight additional volumes. In 1995, he received the John Bates Clark Medal from the American Economic Association, awarded to the economist under 40 whose work is judged to have made the most significant contribution to the field. He served as President of the AEA in 2021 and directed the Labor Studies Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research from 2012 to 2017. His research covers wage determination, inequality, immigration, education, and gender-related labor market issues.

As a speaker, David Card brings Nobel-level authority to questions that matter deeply to senior leaders in business, government, and policy. He translates decades of rigorous empirical research into clear, evidence-based frameworks for thinking about labor markets, workforce policy, and the economics of inequality. Audiences gain not only a command of the evidence but a sharper appreciation for how good research actually gets done — and why it changes what we think we know.