Raj Chetty has shown that the impact of talented
teachers is huge—and measurable. He is one of the
brightest rising stars in the hot field of behavioral economics,
and the only Indian-American to win a 2012
Fellowship from the MacArthur Foundation. Still in his
early 30s, Chetty became a tenured professor at Harvard
in his 20s. For the next five years, he and 22 other recipients
of this “genius” award will each receive $100,000
annually. In one groundbreaking study, Chetty found
that talented teachers in elementary schools make
a significant difference. One way their students do
better than others is by earning much higher incomes
as adults.
Other topics Chetty has focused on:
(1) How employment
insurance affects the behavior of job seekers.
(2) How dividend tax cuts influence corporate behavior.
(3) How retail sales taxes affect consumer behavior.
Adding the sales
tax at the end, rather
than including it in
the price, leads to
greater consumption,
Chetty found.
(4) How
tax policy changes
the way people work.
(5) How tax deductions
for retirement
savings promote individual
savings.
Chetty, who
earned his Ph.D. from Harvard, belongs to a highachieving
family. His father, also an economist, was an
advisor to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi; his mother is
a physician; both his sisters are professors.