New York
Indian-American economist Raj Chetty was awarded Harvard University’s coveted George Ledlie Prize for using big data to uncover myths, barriers to achieving the American Dream.
Chetty is the William A. Ackman Professor of Economics at Harvard University and director of Opportunity Insights a group of economists based at Harvard who study inequality. Raj’s ground-breaking work on economic mobility and his efforts to share this data with policymakers are making the American Dream more accessible to all, said University Provost and Chief Academic Officer Alan M. Garber.
Chetty said he became interested in this work because of his own background, coming to the US from India with his parents when he was nine-years-old. He said he saw the disparities not only between New Delhi and the US, but also between himself and his cousins.
My parents, who grew up in very low-income families and villages in South India the opportunities they had were greatly shaped by the fact that they happened to be the ones who were picked to get a higher education in their families, Chetty said in a Harvard University statement.
The George Ledlie Prize is bestowed no more frequently than every two years to a member of the Harvard community who has, since the last awarding of said prize, by research, discovery, or otherwise, made the most valuable contribution to science, or in any way for the benefit of mankind. It was last given out in 2021 to Dan Barouch of Harvard Medical School for his work developing a vaccine for Covid-19.
