Improving Opportunities for Economic Mobility: New Evidence and Policy Lessons

Myron Scholes Global Markets Forum

May 19, 2015, 5:30–7 p.m., Gleacher Center

Is America the “land of opportunity”? In two recent studies, Raj Chetty and his coauthors have found that: (1) Upward income mobility varies substantially within the US; areas with greater mobility tend to have five characteristics: less segregation, less income inequality, better schools, greater social capital, and more stable families. (2) Contrary to popular perception, economic mobility has not changed significantly over time; however, it is consistently lower in the US than in most developed countries.

The Myron Scholes Global Markets Forum is part of the Initiative on Global Markets (IGM) and is generously sponsored by Myron Scholes.

What’s good for poor kids isn’t bad for rich ones, The Washington Post (May 11)

Speaker Profiles


Raj Chetty is a professor in the Economics Department at Harvard University, codirector of the Public Economics group at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and editor of the Journal of Public Economics. His research combines empirical evidence and theory to inform the design of more effective government policies. Chetty’s work in tax policy, unemployment, and education has been widely cited in media outlets and Congressional testimony.

Chetty received his PhD from Harvard in 2003 at the age of 23 and is one of the youngest tenured professors in the university’s history. He has been named one of the top economists in the world by the New York Times and the Economist magazine. He was awarded a MacArthur “genius grant” in 2012. Chetty recently became one of the youngest recipients of the John Bates Clark medal, given by the American Economic Association to the best American economist under age 40.

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