The Harvard Genius Mapping the Death of the American Dream — Zip Code by Zip Code

Economics Matters with Laurence Kotlikoff · Sep 17, 2026 · 1h 8m

What if the single strongest predictor of whether a poor kid rises into the middle class has nothing to do with intelligence, work ethic, or even education, and everything to do with who happens to be in their classroom in third grade?

Raj Chetty grew up in New Delhi, came to the US in fourth grade, emailed 15 Harvard professors his first week on campus, was working as a research assistant for Marty Feldstein within weeks, graduated college a year early, and became one of the youngest tenured professors in Harvard's history. He has since used anonymized tax records covering virtually every…