{"id":267255,"date":"2019-03-07T15:40:30","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T20:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/?p=267255"},"modified":"2023-11-08T20:39:59","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T01:39:59","slug":"harvard-professor-says-data-has-answers-for-slipping-standard-of-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2019\/03\/harvard-professor-says-data-has-answers-for-slipping-standard-of-living\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebooting the land of opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"<header\n\tclass=\"wp-block-harvard-gazette-article-header alignfull article-header is-style-full-width-text-below centered-image\"\n\tstyle=\" \"\n>\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Raj Chetty speaks at the JFK Jr. Forum.\" height=\"1667\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Chetty.jpg\" width=\"2500\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">\u201cAmerica no longer feels like a place where you can get ahead,\u201d said Harvard economics professor Raj Chetty at Wednesday&#039;s John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Courtesy of IOP<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t<div class=\"article-header__content\">\n\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\tclass=\"article-header__category\"\n\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\tNation &amp; World\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t<h1 class=\"article-header__title wp-block-heading \">\n\t\tRebooting the land of opportunity\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<div class=\"article-header__meta\">\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-post-author\">\n\t\t\t<address class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"author wp-block-post-author__name\">\n\t\tClea Simon\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-post-author__byline\">\n\t\t\tHarvard Correspondent\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t<time class=\"article-header__date\" datetime=\"2019-03-07\">\n\t\t\tMarch 7, 2019\t\t<\/time>\n\n\t\t<span class=\"article-header__reading-time\">\n\t\t\t4 min read\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-header__subheading wp-block-heading\">\n\t\t\tRaj Chetty says big data suggests answers for slipping standard of living\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide has-global-padding is-content-justification-center is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n\n\n\t\t\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-harvard-gazette-supporting-content alignleft supporting-content\" id=\"supporting-content-d23e3094-0aad-4363-b7cb-16e85474042b\">\n\t<div class=\"featured-articles is-post-type-post is-style-grid-list\"  style=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"featured-articles__title wp-block-heading\">More like this<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t<ul class=\"featured-articles__list \">\n\t\t\n\t\t<li class=\"featured-article \">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"featured-article__image\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"750\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=1200%2C750\" class=\"attachment-large-landscape-desktop size-large-landscape-desktop\" alt=\"Raj Chetty\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=608,380 608w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=784,490 784w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=1024,640 1024w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=1200,750 1200w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=1488,930 1488w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=1680,1050 1680w\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"featured-article__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"featured-article__category\" href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/\">\n\t\t\tCampus &amp; Community\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"featured-article__title wp-block-heading \"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2018\/06\/raj-chetty-returning-to-harvard\/\">Raj Chetty returning to Harvard<\/a><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"featured-article__meta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<time class=\"featured-article__date\" datetime=\"2018-06-21\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJune 21, 2018\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/time>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"featured-article__reading-time\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t7 min read\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/li>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t<li class=\"featured-article \">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"featured-article__image\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"750\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/overview-inequality_1120x600.jpg?resize=1200%2C750\" class=\"attachment-large-landscape-desktop size-large-landscape-desktop\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/overview-inequality_1120x600.jpg?resize=608,380 608w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/overview-inequality_1120x600.jpg?resize=784,490 784w\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"featured-article__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"featured-article__category\" href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/\">\n\t\t\tNation &amp; World\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"featured-article__title wp-block-heading \"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2016\/02\/the-costs-of-inequality-when-a-fair-shake-isnt\/\">The costs of inequality: When a fair shake isn\u2019t<\/a><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"featured-article__series series-badge__header wp-block-heading no-series-logo\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"series-badge__logo\">\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<a class=\"series-badge__title\" href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/series\/inequality\/\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"series-badge__part-of\">Part of the<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"series-badge__series-name\">Inequality<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"series-badge__series-text\"> series<\/span>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t<\/figure>\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"featured-article__meta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<time class=\"featured-article__date\" datetime=\"2016-02-01\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFebruary 1, 2016\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/time>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"featured-article__reading-time\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tlong read\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/li>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p>America is supposed to be the land of opportunity, but that reputation has frayed in recent decades. Raj Chetty is looking for common-sense ways to restore that fundamental hope.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum on Wednesday evening, Chetty, Harvard\u2019s William A. Ackman Professor of Public Economics, lasered in on the decline of the oft-cited national promise, and showed a way forward through mining big data.<\/p>\n<p>The American dream has always been about improvement. The idea that \u201cthrough hard work, any child could move up and earn more than their parent\u201d is at its core, said Chetty, who also serves as director of <a href=\"https:\/\/opportunityinsights.org\/\">Opportunity Insights<\/a>, a team of researchers and policy analysts focused on this problem. However, in recent decades that dream has faded.<\/p>\n<p>Comparing base family income levels with those that followed 30 years later, he showed that Americans born in the 1940s and \u201950s were \u201cvirtually guaranteed\u201d to do better than their parents, with 92 percent showing improved incomes. However, by the 1980s, that generational improvement was \u201ca coin toss,\u201d with only roughly half of young adults earning more than their parents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis underlies a lot of the political and social frustration\u201d in the land, said Chetty. \u201cAmerica no longer feels like a place where you can get ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>To understand this trend, Chetty and his team analyzed factors that play into success. What they found was that location \u2014 often by block or neighborhood \u2014 is extremely predictive of how well children eventually do. That success, they found, could be influenced by a move almost any time in a child\u2019s life, through the teens, although earlier moves had the greatest impact. This finding carried through over race and gender, although populations self-described as white uniformly did better nationally than African-Americans.<\/p>\n<p>These observations suggest a number possible solutions, he said. The first would be place-based: Move families at the poverty level to higher-achieving areas. This may sound untenable, but in many cases it can be achieved at relatively little cost, he said. As an example, Chetty looked at Seattle, where the Normandy Park neighborhood, which has significantly better outcomes than average, has rents at roughly the same level as the Central District, a neighborhood with much poorer outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>Pilot studies, such as <a href=\"http:\/\/creatingmoves.org\/\">Creating Moves to Opportunities<\/a>, show ways to help lower-income families relocate to such better-performing areas. That study provided information to tenants. It recruited landlords, who might otherwise be hesitant about accepting housing vouchers or other forms of assistance, and it provided the kind of housing-search assistance that a broker might give to a middle-income family, helping it find its next, better home. These services, the study found, cost only about 2 to 3 percent more than basic housing assistance, which simply provides vouchers.<\/p>\n<p>A more encompassing solution, Chetty acknowledged, would be to improve lower-achievement areas. Again harnessing big data, Chetty pinpointed four key traits that affect an area\u2019s achievement level: a lower poverty rate, more stable family structure, greater social capital (i.e., groups or institutions, such as churches, \u201cwhere someone else might help you out if you\u2019re not doing well\u201d), and better schools.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis doesn\u2019t tell you exactly what you should do, but it shows what you should focus on,\u201d said Chetty. Rather than simply targeting poverty, he said, the data suggests a multifaceted approach targeting \u201cfamily stability, early childhood education, social capital via mentorship, college and career readiness, along with affordable housing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stressing the importance of this work, Chetty said that improving economic opportunity for all is not only more fair and just, it is essential to national health. Graphing the rate of patent holders \u2014 inventors and innovators \u2014 in terms of both their family incomes and their early math scores, he highlighted the importance of both factors in their success. If we do not raise up the geniuses among us, he said, we face the \u201cphenomenon of \u2018lost Einsteins.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf women, minorities, and kids from low-income families were to invent at the same rate as high-income men, we\u2019d have four times as many inventions as we do,\u201d he said. In America, a country that has long defined itself as a land of innovation as well as a land of opportunity, \u201cthis has implications for the economy as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Harvard Professor Raj Chetty says big data suggests some ways to counter the slipping U.S. standard of living.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131912115,"featured_media":267299,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"gz_ga_pageviews":125,"gz_ga_lastupdated":"2022-08-13 23:36","document_color_palette":"crimson","author":"Clea Simon","affiliation":"Harvard Correspondent","_category_override":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1378],"tags":[3842,42478,28736],"gazette-formats":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-267255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nation-world","tag-american-dream","tag-john-f-kennedy-forum","tag-raj-chetty"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.0 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Harvard professor says data has answers for slipping standard of living &#8212; Harvard Gazette<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Harvard Professor Raj Chetty says big data suggests some ways to counter the slipping U.S. standard of living.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2019\/03\/harvard-professor-says-data-has-answers-for-slipping-standard-of-living\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Harvard professor says data has answers for slipping standard of living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Harvard Professor Raj Chetty says big data suggests some ways to counter the slipping U.S. standard of living.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2019\/03\/harvard-professor-says-data-has-answers-for-slipping-standard-of-living\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Harvard Gazette\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-03-07T20:40:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-09T01:39:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Chetty.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lian Parsons\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Harvard professor says data has answers for slipping standard of living\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2019\/03\/harvard-professor-says-data-has-answers-for-slipping-standard-of-living\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2019\/03\/harvard-professor-says-data-has-answers-for-slipping-standard-of-living\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lian Parsons\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#\/schema\/person\/eb0a6f335aa1df1db33a426d73586ba4\"},\"headline\":\"Rebooting the land of opportunity\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-03-07T20:40:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-09T01:39:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2019\/03\/harvard-professor-says-data-has-answers-for-slipping-standard-of-living\/\"},\"wordCount\":741,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2019\/03\/harvard-professor-says-data-has-answers-for-slipping-standard-of-living\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Chetty.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"American Dream\",\"John F. 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Kennedy Jr. Forum.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Courtesy of IOP<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","innerContent":["<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"Raj Chetty speaks at the JFK Jr. Forum.\" height=\"1667\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Chetty.jpg\" width=\"2500\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">\u201cAmerica no longer feels like a place where you can get ahead,\u201d said Harvard economics professor Raj Chetty at Wednesday&#039;s John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Courtesy of IOP<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n"],"rendered":"<header\n\tclass=\"wp-block-harvard-gazette-article-header alignfull article-header is-style-full-width-text-below centered-image\"\n\tstyle=\" \"\n>\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"Raj Chetty speaks at the JFK Jr. Forum.\" height=\"1667\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Chetty.jpg\" width=\"2500\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">\u201cAmerica no longer feels like a place where you can get ahead,\u201d said Harvard economics professor Raj Chetty at Wednesday&#039;s John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Courtesy of IOP<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t<div class=\"article-header__content\">\n\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\tclass=\"article-header__category\"\n\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\tNation &amp; World\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t<h1 class=\"article-header__title wp-block-heading \">\n\t\tRebooting the land of opportunity\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<div class=\"article-header__meta\">\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-post-author\">\n\t\t\t<address class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"author wp-block-post-author__name\">\n\t\tClea Simon\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-post-author__byline\">\n\t\t\tHarvard Correspondent\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t<time class=\"article-header__date\" datetime=\"2019-03-07\">\n\t\t\tMarch 7, 2019\t\t<\/time>\n\n\t\t<span class=\"article-header__reading-time\">\n\t\t\t4 min read\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-header__subheading wp-block-heading\">\n\t\t\tRaj Chetty says big data suggests answers for slipping standard of living\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n"},"2":{"blockName":"core\/group","attrs":{"templateLock":false,"metadata":{"name":"Article content"},"align":"wide","layout":{"type":"constrained","justifyContent":"center"},"tagName":"div","lock":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","ariaLabel":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\t\t","innerContent":["\n\t\t"],"rendered":"\n\t\t"},{"blockName":"harvard-gazette\/supporting-content","attrs":{"id":"d23e3094-0aad-4363-b7cb-16e85474042b","align":"left","allowedBlocks":[],"style":[],"lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"harvard-gazette\/featured-articles","attrs":{"autoGenerate":false,"className":"is-style-grid-list","inPostContent":true,"numberOfPosts":2,"postIds":[247043,178416],"showExcerpt":false,"title":"More like this","category":"","carouselOnDesktop":false,"isEditor":false,"linkText":"See all book reviews","passPostIds":false,"postOverrides":[],"postTypeOverride":"post","receivePostIds":false,"series":"","showCategory":true,"showDate":true,"gridColumns":2,"showDropShadow":false,"showFormat":true,"showImage":true,"showImageZoom":false,"showSeries":true,"showReadMore":true,"showReadTime":true,"tags":[],"useCurrentTerm":false,"lock":[],"metadata":[],"align":"","style":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"","innerContent":[],"rendered":"\n\t<div class=\"featured-articles is-post-type-post is-style-grid-list\"  style=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"featured-articles__title wp-block-heading\">More like this<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t<ul class=\"featured-articles__list \">\n\t\t\n\t\t<li class=\"featured-article \">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"featured-article__image\">\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1200\" height=\"750\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=1200%2C750\" class=\"attachment-large-landscape-desktop size-large-landscape-desktop\" alt=\"Raj Chetty\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=608,380 608w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=784,490 784w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=1024,640 1024w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=1200,750 1200w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=1488,930 1488w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=1680,1050 1680w\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"featured-article__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"featured-article__category\" href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/\">\n\t\t\tCampus &amp; Community\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"featured-article__title wp-block-heading \"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2018\/06\/raj-chetty-returning-to-harvard\/\">Raj Chetty returning to Harvard<\/a><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"featured-article__meta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<time class=\"featured-article__date\" datetime=\"2018-06-21\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJune 21, 2018\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/time>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"featured-article__reading-time\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t7 min read\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/li>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t<li class=\"featured-article \">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"featured-article__image\">\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1200\" height=\"750\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/overview-inequality_1120x600.jpg?resize=1200%2C750\" class=\"attachment-large-landscape-desktop size-large-landscape-desktop\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/overview-inequality_1120x600.jpg?resize=608,380 608w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/overview-inequality_1120x600.jpg?resize=784,490 784w\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"featured-article__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"featured-article__category\" href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/\">\n\t\t\tNation &amp; World\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"featured-article__title wp-block-heading \"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2016\/02\/the-costs-of-inequality-when-a-fair-shake-isnt\/\">The costs of inequality: When a fair shake isn\u2019t<\/a><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"featured-article__series series-badge__header wp-block-heading no-series-logo\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"series-badge__logo\">\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<a class=\"series-badge__title\" href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/series\/inequality\/\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"series-badge__part-of\">Part of the<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"series-badge__series-name\">Inequality<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"series-badge__series-text\"> series<\/span>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t<\/figure>\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"featured-article__meta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<time class=\"featured-article__date\" datetime=\"2016-02-01\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFebruary 1, 2016\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/time>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"featured-article__reading-time\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tlong read\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/li>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t"}],"innerHTML":"<div class=\"wp-block-harvard-gazette-supporting-content alignleft supporting-content\" id=\"supporting-content-d23e3094-0aad-4363-b7cb-16e85474042b\"><\/div>","innerContent":["<div class=\"wp-block-harvard-gazette-supporting-content alignleft supporting-content\" id=\"supporting-content-d23e3094-0aad-4363-b7cb-16e85474042b\">","<\/div>"],"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-harvard-gazette-supporting-content alignleft supporting-content\" id=\"supporting-content-d23e3094-0aad-4363-b7cb-16e85474042b\">\n\t<div class=\"featured-articles is-post-type-post is-style-grid-list\"  style=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"featured-articles__title wp-block-heading\">More like this<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t<ul class=\"featured-articles__list \">\n\t\t\n\t\t<li class=\"featured-article \">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"featured-article__image\">\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1200\" height=\"750\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=1200%2C750\" class=\"attachment-large-landscape-desktop size-large-landscape-desktop\" alt=\"Raj Chetty\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=608,380 608w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=784,490 784w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=1024,640 1024w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=1200,750 1200w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=1488,930 1488w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=1680,1050 1680w\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"featured-article__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"featured-article__category\" href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/\">\n\t\t\tCampus &amp; Community\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"featured-article__title wp-block-heading \"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2018\/06\/raj-chetty-returning-to-harvard\/\">Raj Chetty returning to Harvard<\/a><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"featured-article__meta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<time class=\"featured-article__date\" datetime=\"2018-06-21\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJune 21, 2018\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/time>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"featured-article__reading-time\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t7 min read\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/li>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t<li class=\"featured-article \">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"featured-article__image\">\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1200\" height=\"750\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/overview-inequality_1120x600.jpg?resize=1200%2C750\" class=\"attachment-large-landscape-desktop size-large-landscape-desktop\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/overview-inequality_1120x600.jpg?resize=608,380 608w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/overview-inequality_1120x600.jpg?resize=784,490 784w\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"featured-article__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"featured-article__category\" href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/\">\n\t\t\tNation &amp; World\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"featured-article__title wp-block-heading \"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2016\/02\/the-costs-of-inequality-when-a-fair-shake-isnt\/\">The costs of inequality: When a fair shake isn\u2019t<\/a><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"featured-article__series series-badge__header wp-block-heading no-series-logo\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"series-badge__logo\">\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<a class=\"series-badge__title\" href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/series\/inequality\/\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"series-badge__part-of\">Part of the<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"series-badge__series-name\">Inequality<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"series-badge__series-text\"> series<\/span>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t<\/figure>\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"featured-article__meta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<time class=\"featured-article__date\" datetime=\"2016-02-01\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFebruary 1, 2016\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/time>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"featured-article__reading-time\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tlong read\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/li>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>"},{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\r\n<p>America is supposed to be the land of opportunity, but that reputation has frayed in recent decades. Raj Chetty is looking for common-sense ways to restore that fundamental hope.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum on Wednesday evening, Chetty, Harvard\u2019s William A. Ackman Professor of Public Economics, lasered in on the decline of the oft-cited national promise, and showed a way forward through mining big data.<\/p>\n<p>The American dream has always been about improvement. The idea that \u201cthrough hard work, any child could move up and earn more than their parent\u201d is at its core, said Chetty, who also serves as director of <a href=\"https:\/\/opportunityinsights.org\/\">Opportunity Insights<\/a>, a team of researchers and policy analysts focused on this problem. However, in recent decades that dream has faded.<\/p>\n<p>Comparing base family income levels with those that followed 30 years later, he showed that Americans born in the 1940s and \u201950s were \u201cvirtually guaranteed\u201d to do better than their parents, with 92 percent showing improved incomes. However, by the 1980s, that generational improvement was \u201ca coin toss,\u201d with only roughly half of young adults earning more than their parents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis underlies a lot of the political and social frustration\u201d in the land, said Chetty. \u201cAmerica no longer feels like a place where you can get ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>To understand this trend, Chetty and his team analyzed factors that play into success. What they found was that location \u2014 often by block or neighborhood \u2014 is extremely predictive of how well children eventually do. That success, they found, could be influenced by a move almost any time in a child\u2019s life, through the teens, although earlier moves had the greatest impact. This finding carried through over race and gender, although populations self-described as white uniformly did better nationally than African-Americans.<\/p>\n<p>These observations suggest a number possible solutions, he said. The first would be place-based: Move families at the poverty level to higher-achieving areas. This may sound untenable, but in many cases it can be achieved at relatively little cost, he said. As an example, Chetty looked at Seattle, where the Normandy Park neighborhood, which has significantly better outcomes than average, has rents at roughly the same level as the Central District, a neighborhood with much poorer outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>Pilot studies, such as <a href=\"http:\/\/creatingmoves.org\/\">Creating Moves to Opportunities<\/a>, show ways to help lower-income families relocate to such better-performing areas. That study provided information to tenants. It recruited landlords, who might otherwise be hesitant about accepting housing vouchers or other forms of assistance, and it provided the kind of housing-search assistance that a broker might give to a middle-income family, helping it find its next, better home. These services, the study found, cost only about 2 to 3 percent more than basic housing assistance, which simply provides vouchers.<\/p>\n<p>A more encompassing solution, Chetty acknowledged, would be to improve lower-achievement areas. Again harnessing big data, Chetty pinpointed four key traits that affect an area\u2019s achievement level: a lower poverty rate, more stable family structure, greater social capital (i.e., groups or institutions, such as churches, \u201cwhere someone else might help you out if you\u2019re not doing well\u201d), and better schools.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis doesn\u2019t tell you exactly what you should do, but it shows what you should focus on,\u201d said Chetty. Rather than simply targeting poverty, he said, the data suggests a multifaceted approach targeting \u201cfamily stability, early childhood education, social capital via mentorship, college and career readiness, along with affordable housing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stressing the importance of this work, Chetty said that improving economic opportunity for all is not only more fair and just, it is essential to national health. Graphing the rate of patent holders \u2014 inventors and innovators \u2014 in terms of both their family incomes and their early math scores, he highlighted the importance of both factors in their success. If we do not raise up the geniuses among us, he said, we face the \u201cphenomenon of \u2018lost Einsteins.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf women, minorities, and kids from low-income families were to invent at the same rate as high-income men, we\u2019d have four times as many inventions as we do,\u201d he said. In America, a country that has long defined itself as a land of innovation as well as a land of opportunity, \u201cthis has implications for the economy as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n","innerContent":["\r\n<p>America is supposed to be the land of opportunity, but that reputation has frayed in recent decades. Raj Chetty is looking for common-sense ways to restore that fundamental hope.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum on Wednesday evening, Chetty, Harvard\u2019s William A. Ackman Professor of Public Economics, lasered in on the decline of the oft-cited national promise, and showed a way forward through mining big data.<\/p>\n<p>The American dream has always been about improvement. The idea that \u201cthrough hard work, any child could move up and earn more than their parent\u201d is at its core, said Chetty, who also serves as director of <a href=\"https:\/\/opportunityinsights.org\/\">Opportunity Insights<\/a>, a team of researchers and policy analysts focused on this problem. However, in recent decades that dream has faded.<\/p>\n<p>Comparing base family income levels with those that followed 30 years later, he showed that Americans born in the 1940s and \u201950s were \u201cvirtually guaranteed\u201d to do better than their parents, with 92 percent showing improved incomes. However, by the 1980s, that generational improvement was \u201ca coin toss,\u201d with only roughly half of young adults earning more than their parents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis underlies a lot of the political and social frustration\u201d in the land, said Chetty. \u201cAmerica no longer feels like a place where you can get ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>To understand this trend, Chetty and his team analyzed factors that play into success. What they found was that location \u2014 often by block or neighborhood \u2014 is extremely predictive of how well children eventually do. That success, they found, could be influenced by a move almost any time in a child\u2019s life, through the teens, although earlier moves had the greatest impact. This finding carried through over race and gender, although populations self-described as white uniformly did better nationally than African-Americans.<\/p>\n<p>These observations suggest a number possible solutions, he said. The first would be place-based: Move families at the poverty level to higher-achieving areas. This may sound untenable, but in many cases it can be achieved at relatively little cost, he said. As an example, Chetty looked at Seattle, where the Normandy Park neighborhood, which has significantly better outcomes than average, has rents at roughly the same level as the Central District, a neighborhood with much poorer outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>Pilot studies, such as <a href=\"http:\/\/creatingmoves.org\/\">Creating Moves to Opportunities<\/a>, show ways to help lower-income families relocate to such better-performing areas. That study provided information to tenants. It recruited landlords, who might otherwise be hesitant about accepting housing vouchers or other forms of assistance, and it provided the kind of housing-search assistance that a broker might give to a middle-income family, helping it find its next, better home. These services, the study found, cost only about 2 to 3 percent more than basic housing assistance, which simply provides vouchers.<\/p>\n<p>A more encompassing solution, Chetty acknowledged, would be to improve lower-achievement areas. Again harnessing big data, Chetty pinpointed four key traits that affect an area\u2019s achievement level: a lower poverty rate, more stable family structure, greater social capital (i.e., groups or institutions, such as churches, \u201cwhere someone else might help you out if you\u2019re not doing well\u201d), and better schools.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis doesn\u2019t tell you exactly what you should do, but it shows what you should focus on,\u201d said Chetty. Rather than simply targeting poverty, he said, the data suggests a multifaceted approach targeting \u201cfamily stability, early childhood education, social capital via mentorship, college and career readiness, along with affordable housing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stressing the importance of this work, Chetty said that improving economic opportunity for all is not only more fair and just, it is essential to national health. Graphing the rate of patent holders \u2014 inventors and innovators \u2014 in terms of both their family incomes and their early math scores, he highlighted the importance of both factors in their success. If we do not raise up the geniuses among us, he said, we face the \u201cphenomenon of \u2018lost Einsteins.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf women, minorities, and kids from low-income families were to invent at the same rate as high-income men, we\u2019d have four times as many inventions as we do,\u201d he said. In America, a country that has long defined itself as a land of innovation as well as a land of opportunity, \u201cthis has implications for the economy as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n"],"rendered":"\r\n<p>America is supposed to be the land of opportunity, but that reputation has frayed in recent decades. Raj Chetty is looking for common-sense ways to restore that fundamental hope.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum on Wednesday evening, Chetty, Harvard\u2019s William A. Ackman Professor of Public Economics, lasered in on the decline of the oft-cited national promise, and showed a way forward through mining big data.<\/p>\n<p>The American dream has always been about improvement. The idea that \u201cthrough hard work, any child could move up and earn more than their parent\u201d is at its core, said Chetty, who also serves as director of <a href=\"https:\/\/opportunityinsights.org\/\">Opportunity Insights<\/a>, a team of researchers and policy analysts focused on this problem. However, in recent decades that dream has faded.<\/p>\n<p>Comparing base family income levels with those that followed 30 years later, he showed that Americans born in the 1940s and \u201950s were \u201cvirtually guaranteed\u201d to do better than their parents, with 92 percent showing improved incomes. However, by the 1980s, that generational improvement was \u201ca coin toss,\u201d with only roughly half of young adults earning more than their parents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis underlies a lot of the political and social frustration\u201d in the land, said Chetty. \u201cAmerica no longer feels like a place where you can get ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>To understand this trend, Chetty and his team analyzed factors that play into success. What they found was that location \u2014 often by block or neighborhood \u2014 is extremely predictive of how well children eventually do. That success, they found, could be influenced by a move almost any time in a child\u2019s life, through the teens, although earlier moves had the greatest impact. This finding carried through over race and gender, although populations self-described as white uniformly did better nationally than African-Americans.<\/p>\n<p>These observations suggest a number possible solutions, he said. The first would be place-based: Move families at the poverty level to higher-achieving areas. This may sound untenable, but in many cases it can be achieved at relatively little cost, he said. As an example, Chetty looked at Seattle, where the Normandy Park neighborhood, which has significantly better outcomes than average, has rents at roughly the same level as the Central District, a neighborhood with much poorer outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>Pilot studies, such as <a href=\"http:\/\/creatingmoves.org\/\">Creating Moves to Opportunities<\/a>, show ways to help lower-income families relocate to such better-performing areas. That study provided information to tenants. It recruited landlords, who might otherwise be hesitant about accepting housing vouchers or other forms of assistance, and it provided the kind of housing-search assistance that a broker might give to a middle-income family, helping it find its next, better home. These services, the study found, cost only about 2 to 3 percent more than basic housing assistance, which simply provides vouchers.<\/p>\n<p>A more encompassing solution, Chetty acknowledged, would be to improve lower-achievement areas. Again harnessing big data, Chetty pinpointed four key traits that affect an area\u2019s achievement level: a lower poverty rate, more stable family structure, greater social capital (i.e., groups or institutions, such as churches, \u201cwhere someone else might help you out if you\u2019re not doing well\u201d), and better schools.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis doesn\u2019t tell you exactly what you should do, but it shows what you should focus on,\u201d said Chetty. Rather than simply targeting poverty, he said, the data suggests a multifaceted approach targeting \u201cfamily stability, early childhood education, social capital via mentorship, college and career readiness, along with affordable housing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stressing the importance of this work, Chetty said that improving economic opportunity for all is not only more fair and just, it is essential to national health. Graphing the rate of patent holders \u2014 inventors and innovators \u2014 in terms of both their family incomes and their early math scores, he highlighted the importance of both factors in their success. If we do not raise up the geniuses among us, he said, we face the \u201cphenomenon of \u2018lost Einsteins.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf women, minorities, and kids from low-income families were to invent at the same rate as high-income men, we\u2019d have four times as many inventions as we do,\u201d he said. In America, a country that has long defined itself as a land of innovation as well as a land of opportunity, \u201cthis has implications for the economy as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n"}],"innerHTML":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n\r\n\r\n\n\n<\/div>\n","innerContent":["\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n","\r\n","\r\n","\n\n<\/div>\n"],"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide has-global-padding is-content-justification-center is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n\n\n\t\t\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-harvard-gazette-supporting-content alignleft supporting-content\" id=\"supporting-content-d23e3094-0aad-4363-b7cb-16e85474042b\">\n\t<div class=\"featured-articles is-post-type-post is-style-grid-list\"  style=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"featured-articles__title wp-block-heading\">More like this<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t<ul class=\"featured-articles__list \">\n\t\t\n\t\t<li class=\"featured-article \">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"featured-article__image\">\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1200\" height=\"750\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=1200%2C750\" class=\"attachment-large-landscape-desktop size-large-landscape-desktop\" alt=\"Raj Chetty\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=608,380 608w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=784,490 784w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=1024,640 1024w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=1200,750 1200w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=1488,930 1488w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=1680,1050 1680w\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"featured-article__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"featured-article__category\" href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/\">\n\t\t\tCampus &amp; Community\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"featured-article__title wp-block-heading \"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2018\/06\/raj-chetty-returning-to-harvard\/\">Raj Chetty returning to Harvard<\/a><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"featured-article__meta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<time class=\"featured-article__date\" datetime=\"2018-06-21\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJune 21, 2018\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/time>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"featured-article__reading-time\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t7 min read\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/li>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t<li class=\"featured-article \">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"featured-article__image\">\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1200\" height=\"750\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/overview-inequality_1120x600.jpg?resize=1200%2C750\" class=\"attachment-large-landscape-desktop size-large-landscape-desktop\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/overview-inequality_1120x600.jpg?resize=608,380 608w, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/overview-inequality_1120x600.jpg?resize=784,490 784w\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"featured-article__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"featured-article__category\" href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/\">\n\t\t\tNation &amp; World\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"featured-article__title wp-block-heading \"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2016\/02\/the-costs-of-inequality-when-a-fair-shake-isnt\/\">The costs of inequality: When a fair shake isn\u2019t<\/a><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"featured-article__series series-badge__header wp-block-heading no-series-logo\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"series-badge__logo\">\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<a class=\"series-badge__title\" href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/series\/inequality\/\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"series-badge__part-of\">Part of the<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"series-badge__series-name\">Inequality<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"series-badge__series-text\"> series<\/span>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t<\/figure>\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"featured-article__meta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<time class=\"featured-article__date\" datetime=\"2016-02-01\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFebruary 1, 2016\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/time>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"featured-article__reading-time\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tlong read\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/li>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p>America is supposed to be the land of opportunity, but that reputation has frayed in recent decades. Raj Chetty is looking for common-sense ways to restore that fundamental hope.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum on Wednesday evening, Chetty, Harvard\u2019s William A. Ackman Professor of Public Economics, lasered in on the decline of the oft-cited national promise, and showed a way forward through mining big data.<\/p>\n<p>The American dream has always been about improvement. The idea that \u201cthrough hard work, any child could move up and earn more than their parent\u201d is at its core, said Chetty, who also serves as director of <a href=\"https:\/\/opportunityinsights.org\/\">Opportunity Insights<\/a>, a team of researchers and policy analysts focused on this problem. However, in recent decades that dream has faded.<\/p>\n<p>Comparing base family income levels with those that followed 30 years later, he showed that Americans born in the 1940s and \u201950s were \u201cvirtually guaranteed\u201d to do better than their parents, with 92 percent showing improved incomes. However, by the 1980s, that generational improvement was \u201ca coin toss,\u201d with only roughly half of young adults earning more than their parents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis underlies a lot of the political and social frustration\u201d in the land, said Chetty. \u201cAmerica no longer feels like a place where you can get ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>To understand this trend, Chetty and his team analyzed factors that play into success. What they found was that location \u2014 often by block or neighborhood \u2014 is extremely predictive of how well children eventually do. That success, they found, could be influenced by a move almost any time in a child\u2019s life, through the teens, although earlier moves had the greatest impact. This finding carried through over race and gender, although populations self-described as white uniformly did better nationally than African-Americans.<\/p>\n<p>These observations suggest a number possible solutions, he said. The first would be place-based: Move families at the poverty level to higher-achieving areas. This may sound untenable, but in many cases it can be achieved at relatively little cost, he said. As an example, Chetty looked at Seattle, where the Normandy Park neighborhood, which has significantly better outcomes than average, has rents at roughly the same level as the Central District, a neighborhood with much poorer outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>Pilot studies, such as <a href=\"http:\/\/creatingmoves.org\/\">Creating Moves to Opportunities<\/a>, show ways to help lower-income families relocate to such better-performing areas. That study provided information to tenants. It recruited landlords, who might otherwise be hesitant about accepting housing vouchers or other forms of assistance, and it provided the kind of housing-search assistance that a broker might give to a middle-income family, helping it find its next, better home. These services, the study found, cost only about 2 to 3 percent more than basic housing assistance, which simply provides vouchers.<\/p>\n<p>A more encompassing solution, Chetty acknowledged, would be to improve lower-achievement areas. Again harnessing big data, Chetty pinpointed four key traits that affect an area\u2019s achievement level: a lower poverty rate, more stable family structure, greater social capital (i.e., groups or institutions, such as churches, \u201cwhere someone else might help you out if you\u2019re not doing well\u201d), and better schools.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis doesn\u2019t tell you exactly what you should do, but it shows what you should focus on,\u201d said Chetty. Rather than simply targeting poverty, he said, the data suggests a multifaceted approach targeting \u201cfamily stability, early childhood education, social capital via mentorship, college and career readiness, along with affordable housing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stressing the importance of this work, Chetty said that improving economic opportunity for all is not only more fair and just, it is essential to national health. Graphing the rate of patent holders \u2014 inventors and innovators \u2014 in terms of both their family incomes and their early math scores, he highlighted the importance of both factors in their success. If we do not raise up the geniuses among us, he said, we face the \u201cphenomenon of \u2018lost Einsteins.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf women, minorities, and kids from low-income families were to invent at the same rate as high-income men, we\u2019d have four times as many inventions as we do,\u201d he said. In America, a country that has long defined itself as a land of innovation as well as a land of opportunity, \u201cthis has implications for the economy as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n"}},"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":247043,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2018\/06\/raj-chetty-returning-to-harvard\/","url_meta":{"origin":267255,"position":0},"title":"Raj Chetty returning to Harvard","author":"harvardgazette","date":"June 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Economist Raj Chetty, who left Harvard for Stanford in 2015, is returning to Harvard this summer to become the inaugural William A. Ackman Professor of Economics, and continue his work on American inequality.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Campus &amp; Community&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Campus &amp; Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Raj Chetty","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Raj-in-San-DIego_2500.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4910,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2009\/04\/finance-scholar-chetty-named-professor-of-economics\/","url_meta":{"origin":267255,"position":1},"title":"Finance scholar Chetty named professor of economics","author":"harvardgazette","date":"April 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Raj Chetty, a public economist whose work focuses on social insurance and tax policy, has been appointed professor of economics in Harvard University\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), effective April 1.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Nation &amp; World&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Nation &amp; World","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135943,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2013\/04\/raj-chetty-awarded-clark-medal\/","url_meta":{"origin":267255,"position":2},"title":"Raj Chetty awarded Clark Medal","author":"harvardgazette","date":"April 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Harvard Professor of Economics Raj Chetty has been awarded the 2013 John Bates Clark Medal in recognition of his work, which combines empirical evidence and theory to inform the design of more effective government policies on everything from taxation to unemployment to education.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Campus &amp; Community&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Campus &amp; Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/020311_economics_387_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/020311_economics_387_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/020311_economics_387_605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":33262,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2009\/12\/the-personal-side-of-economics\/","url_meta":{"origin":267255,"position":3},"title":"The personal side of economics","author":"harvardgazette","date":"December 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Harvard\u2019s newest tenured economics professor tries to craft policy solutions that match the ways that we behave.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Campus &amp; Community&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Campus &amp; Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/chetty_018_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/chetty_018_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/chetty_018_605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":365662,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2023\/10\/chetty-and-sandel-take-on-the-american-dream\/","url_meta":{"origin":267255,"position":4},"title":"Chetty, Sandel on what\u2019s crushing American Dream","author":"harvardgazette","date":"October 19, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Big data shows that being rich matters a lot more than how hard someone works. Raj Chetty and Michael Sandel offer insights as part of the Reimagining the Economy series.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Nation &amp; World&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Nation &amp; World","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Raj Chetty and Michael Sandel.","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/101823_Chetty_Sandel_130_2500_crop.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/101823_Chetty_Sandel_130_2500_crop.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/101823_Chetty_Sandel_130_2500_crop.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/101823_Chetty_Sandel_130_2500_crop.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":251033,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2018\/10\/harvard-researchers-ask-why-stop-at-research\/","url_meta":{"origin":267255,"position":5},"title":"Reviving the American dream, one neighborhood at a time","author":"gazettejohnbaglione","date":"October 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"New economics research and policy institute to probe ways to boost opportunity in the U.S.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Work &amp; Economy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Work &amp; Economy","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/business-economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/091818_Oppin_0210_2500h.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/091818_Oppin_0210_2500h.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/091818_Oppin_0210_2500h.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/091818_Oppin_0210_2500h.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131912115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267255"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":267283,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267255\/revisions\/267283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267255"},{"taxonomy":"format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gazette-formats?post=267255"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=267255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}