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Raj Chetty: Key Themes and Academic Works

Delivered November 20, 2019. Contributor: Gbolahan G.

Goals

To provide a summary of Raj Chetty's academic works as well as identify common themes prevalent in his works associated with upward mobility and economic opportunity.

Early Findings

 Raj Chetty is one of the youngest economics professors at Havard University. He is also the Director of Opportunity Insights, which develops scalable policy solutions that help empower US families to achieve better economic outcomes.

The professor has authored several papers relating to upward mobility and economic opportunity. A review of his academic works indicates that he has authored 16 papers relating to economic opportunity and upward mobility. The list of relevant papers include:
  • Creating Moves to Opportunity: Experimental Evidence on Barriers to Neighborhood Choice - August 2019.
  • Do Tax Cuts Produce More Einsteins? The Impacts of Financial Incentives vs. Exposure to Innovation on the Supply of Inventors - January 2019.
  • The Opportunity Atlas: Mapping the Childhood Roots of Social Mobility - October 2018.
  • Race and Economic Opportunity in the United States: An Intergenerational Perspective - March 2018.
  • Who Becomes an Inventor in America? The Importance of Exposure to Innovation - December 2017. 
  • Mobility Report Cards: The Role of Colleges in Intergenerational Mobility - December 2017. 
  • The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Intergenerational Mobility II: County-Level Estimates - December 2017. 
  • The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Intergenerational Mobility I: Childhood Exposure Effects - December 2017. 
  • The Fading American Dream: Trends in Absolute Income Mobility Since 1940 - December 2016. 
  • Childhood Environment and Gender Gaps in Adulthood - January 2016.
  • The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children: New Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment - May 2015.
  • Measuring the Impacts of Teachers II: Teacher Value-Added and Student Outcomes in Adulthood - September 2014.
  • Measuring the Impacts of Teachers I: Teacher Value-Added and Student Outcomes in Adulthood - September 2014.
  • Where is the Land of Opportunity? The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States - June 2014.
  • Is the United States Still a Land of Opportunity? Recent Trends in Intergenerational Mobility - January 2014.
  • How Does Your Kindergarten Classroom Affect Your Earnings? Evidence from Project STAR - December 2011. 

The Brookings Institution recently released an article discussing his past works on social mobility. The article tries to summarize some of his most popular papers in three or fewer sentences accompanied by relevant graphs. The article is available here.

Summary Of Our Early Findings Relevant To The Goals

  • In our initial hour of research, we were able to identify 16 academic papers authored by Raj Chetty relating to upward mobility and economic opportunity.
  • We were also able to identify a summary of some of his most popular academic works compiled by the Brookings Institution.

Proposed next steps:

You need to be the project owner to select a next step.
We are suggesting further research that will build upon the initial findings. To that end, we'd recommend additional research hours to summarize each academic paper in no less than 5 sentences covering its abstract and conclusion sections.
In line with the goals of the project, we would also recommend research detailing Raj Chetty's persona, his interests, philanthropical activities, and reputation as well as identify his research goals or common themes prevalent in his works associated with upward mobility and economic opportunity.