Latest news with #RajChetty
Technical.ly
18-05-2025
- Business
- Technical.ly
How tech and entrepreneurship can boost economic mobility
An American ideal is that each person has a chance at ending up better off than their parents. This idea — known in policy circles as economic mobility — is no fair fight. Where a child is born influences how much they'll earn well into adulthood. But these inputs can be changed, and we are beginning to better understand how. Research from Harvard economist Raj Chetty and his Opportunity Insights team was updated last fall, and has influenced civic circles around the country. It informed a recent Federal Reserve Bank event, and the second day of the Builders Conference last week. At both, and many other discussions, Chetty's point was reinforced: How likely an American is to earn more in adulthood than their parents at the same age ranges widely by state, region and even neighborhood. Nationwide economic mobility has worsened, but that simplifies a much more varied picture. Over the last generation, in much of the US Southeast and pockets of the Midwest, economic mobility has improved. In many big, older cities, it's proved much harder for someone born poor to increase their earnings than it was a generation ago. Race, which is entwined with geography, is a strong predictor of mobility too. Asian and Hispanic children — many from immigrant families — have seen rising mobility, while it has declined for kids from low-income white families and remained stagnant or only slightly improved for Black children. Outcomes vary widely by zip code, with Black boys, along with Indigenous and Alaska Native children, experiencing some of the worst results. Such divergence can make poverty feel intractable and capricious. In another way, such ranges can also inform how to give more of us a fair shake. Relying on tax records to compare kids born in 1978 with those born in 1992, Chetty's team isolated what they say is the 'single strongest predictor' in boosting economic mobility: Ensuring poor, rich and middle-income households interact. Mixed-income friendships, schools and housing are associated with significantly higher economic outcomes for children from lower-income families. Shared information resources help. Middle and higher-income kids see benefits too. Prominent economists argue that economic mobility is a better metric to focus on than inequality, which is trickier to track than it might seem. As class mobility rises as a policymaking priority and civic good, place-based economic development leaders will be on the frontlines. The coalition building that defines what many call ecosystem building can contribute. Rather than cloistered gatherings of experienced entrepreneurs and elite tech workers, we can strive to mix across education and income lines. This spring marks 50 years since the Homebrew Computer Club got its start in a Menlo Park garage. The computing clubs that followed across the country gave rise to the tech meetup culture that defined so many tech communities in the 2010s. At their best, these low-cost, no-frills and informal gatherings cut across socioeconomic backgrounds by using a shared common interest in an emerging technology. When done intentionally, entrepreneurship has a similar cross-cultural pull. I've spoken about tech and startups both at high schools filled with kids from wealthy families and others filled with kids from poor families. These topics can bring people together, when done intentionally — even when our choices in housing and schools put us farther apart. In 2019, every one of the top 10 most popular meetups was tech and entrepreneurship related, according to an annual report from the (bewildering) company behind After pandemic lockdowns in 2021, they were all friendship and outdoors related. Last year, many were still people doing sports and hobbies together — but there was a rise in groups focused on practical uses of AI. The best attended meetup of 2024 was focused on sharing tips on using ChatGPT. Technically is trying to play a part — we've resisted a paywall for our local tech career and entrepreneurship information. Our editorial strategy aims to engage both experienced tech and startup leaders, and people who aspire to join their ranks. Better income-integration in housing and schools would help plenty, but Chetty's research shows mixing incomes in friendships and professional relationships works too. Not only is untapped human potential a moral wrong, but also, as argued in a 2023 Technically report, when a high-potential child underperforms we all miss out on their unrealized contributions. So think about it. Where do you live? Where do you send your kids to school? Who are your friends? Where does your community get its news and information? Mobility isn't a mystery. It's circumstantial — and those of us with the freedom to choose can be intentional in helping it happen.
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
What ever happened to the American dream?
Is the American dream on a slow march to the grave? The adage suggests any child born in the U.S. should have the opportunity, through hard work and determination, to do better than their parents. And once upon a time, it held up pretty well. Back in the 1940s, it was almost a guaranteed path for children to surpass the living earned by their parents with some 92% of those progeny moving up the economic ladder, according to data shared in a presentation Thursday by renowned Harvard economist Raj Chetty at the University of Utah's Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. But by the 1980s, that virtual lock had faded dramatically, Chetty said, and children of that decade were facing even money — 50/50 odds — to surpass their parents on the income metric. And that's about where their chances remain today. Chetty is the William A. Ackman Professor of Economics at Harvard University and the director of Opportunity Insights, a Harvard-based group of researchers and policy analysts working to address a fundamental challenge: How can we give children from all backgrounds better chances of succeeding? Utilizing massive amounts of data going back decades, Chetty and his team have identified the underlying factors behind the profound backslide in American economic mobility with the hope that by recognizing causal issues and vetting potential policy solutions, the trend can be reversed. Chetty notes, perhaps not surprisingly, that the location of a child's neighborhood has a major impact on their future economic prospects. 'Where you grew up, the community you were living in, is a critical determinate of your life outcomes,' he said. Chetty said that the data clearly reflects that childhood environment has a direct impact on future economic prospects but has a waning influence the older a child gets. By adulthood, the influence essentially disappears. Chetty shared a heat map of the U.S. showing the variations, divided by zip code, in levels of economic opportunity across the country. Children who grow up in low economic mobility zones have the lowest chances of bettering their parents' economic prospects while those in high mobility neighborhoods are likely to level up. The strongest characteristics of high economic mobility areas, according to Chetty, include: Lower poverty rate More stable family structures Better K-12 levels schools and easier access to higher education Social capital 'In the U.S. as a whole, about half of the disconnection we see between low and high income people is driven by segregation by income,' Chetty said. 'We tend to live in different neighborhoods, we tend to go to different schools, different colleges and so on.' The other half of that separation, according to Chetty's research, is driven by friending bias, the tendency for individuals to form friendships and connections with those in their own socioeconomic sphere. One study found that poor children with a friend network of 70% wealthier kids would realize future incomes 20% higher than peers without the cross-class connections. Those cross-class relationships, according to the 2022 study, had stronger economic impacts than school quality, family structure, job availability or a community's racial composition. To grow the pool of American children with elevated economic mobility, Chetty said policy solutions would be most effective in targeting three areas: Reducing economic segregation Making place-based investments Increasing access to higher education and workforce training Chetty cited a housing subsidy pilot program in Seattle in which half the families received vouchers for housing in whatever area they chose, while the other half received vouchers along with additional social support to secure homes in higher opportunity neighborhoods. In the control group, only 14% of families moved to higher opportunity areas but the rate rose to 54% among families in the supported group. The rate of the return on investment for those families in high opportunity areas is on track to be substantial, Chetty said, with children from those families likely to see their lifetime earnings elevated by $200,000. Another exploration of policy-based solutions, led by Opportunity Insights, is the Collegiate Leaders in Increasing MoBility (CLIMB) Initiative, a partnership between leading higher education economists, policymakers and a diverse set of U.S. colleges and universities. The initiative is seeking to understand not only which colleges act as engines of intergenerational mobility, but why and how schools and policymakers 'can promote opportunity and economic growth by helping larger numbers of low-income students reach the middle class.' Chetty noted that while Utah has earned top billing in the country when it comes to economic mobility measures, at a neighborhood level there remain deep divides across the state for children's relative chances, depending on where they live and the opportunities they can access, to move up the socioeconomic ladder. A wide swath of current and former Utah policymakers were in attendance for Chetty's presentation this week including former Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz as well as municipal government representatives from the Salt Lake City Council and other communities. In comments made following Chetty's presentation, Schultz noted his personal journey as an individual who has ascended from his childhood economic position. 'We are these numbers,' Schultz said, referencing the data from Chetty's presentation. 'Most of us started out at a different economic scale than we're currently at today. Personally, I was on the bottom end of the middle income class. I grew up in a community where I was fortunate enough to have great mentors … and (connections with) people on the upper end of the income scale."
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
What ever happened to the American dream?
Is the American dream on a slow march to the grave? The adage suggests any child born in the U.S. should have the opportunity, through hard work and determination, to do better than their parents. And once upon a time, it held up pretty well. Back in the 1940s, it was almost a guaranteed path for children to surpass the living earned by their parents with some 92% of those progeny moving up the economic ladder, according to data shared in a presentation Thursday by renowned Harvard economist Raj Chetty at the University of Utah's Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. But by the 1980s, that virtual lock had faded dramatically, Chetty said, and children of that decade were facing even money — 50/50 odds — to surpass their parents on the income metric. And that's about where their chances remain today. Chetty is the William A. Ackman Professor of Economics at Harvard University and the director of Opportunity Insights, a Harvard-based group of researchers and policy analysts working to address a fundamental challenge: How can we give children from all backgrounds better chances of succeeding? Utilizing massive amounts of data going back decades, Chetty and his team have identified the underlying factors behind the profound backslide in American economic mobility with the hope that by recognizing causal issues and vetting potential policy solutions, the trend can be reversed. Chetty notes, perhaps not surprisingly, that the location of a child's neighborhood has a major impact on their future economic prospects. 'Where you grew up, the community you were living in, is a critical determinate of your life outcomes,' he said. Chetty said that the data clearly reflects that childhood environment has a direct impact on future economic prospects but has a waning influence the older a child gets. By adulthood, the influence essentially disappears. Chetty shared a heat map of the U.S. showing the variations, divided by zip code, in levels of economic opportunity across the country. Children who grow up in low economic mobility zones have the lowest chances of bettering their parents' economic prospects while those in high mobility neighborhoods are likely to level up. The strongest characteristics of high economic mobility areas, according to Chetty, include: Lower poverty rate More stable family structures Better K-12 levels schools and easier access to higher education Social capital 'In the U.S. as a whole, about half of the disconnection we see between low and high income people is driven by segregation by income,' Chetty said. 'We tend to live in different neighborhoods, we tend to go to different schools, different colleges and so on.' The other half of that separation, according to Chetty's research, is driven by friending bias, the tendency for individuals to form friendships and connections with those in their own socioeconomic sphere. One study found that poor children with a friend network of 70% wealthier kids would realize future incomes 20% higher than peers without the cross-class connections. Those cross-class relationships, according to the 2022 study, had stronger economic impacts than school quality, family structure, job availability or a community's racial composition. To grow the pool of American children with elevated economic mobility, Chetty said policy solutions would be most effective in targeting three areas: Reducing economic segregation Making place-based investments Increasing access to higher education and workforce training Chetty cited a housing subsidy pilot program in Seattle in which half the families received vouchers for housing in whatever area they chose, while the other half received vouchers along with additional social support to secure homes in higher opportunity neighborhoods. In the control group, only 14% of families moved to higher opportunity areas but the rate rose to 54% among families in the supported group. The rate of the return on investment for those families in high opportunity areas is on track to be substantial, Chetty said, with children from those families likely to see their lifetime earnings elevated by $200,000. Another exploration of policy-based solutions, led by Opportunity Insights, is the Collegiate Leaders in Increasing MoBility (CLIMB) Initiative, a partnership between leading higher education economists, policymakers and a diverse set of U.S. colleges and universities. The initiative is seeking to understand not only which colleges act as engines of intergenerational mobility, but why and how schools and policymakers 'can promote opportunity and economic growth by helping larger numbers of low-income students reach the middle class.' Chetty noted that while Utah has earned top billing in the country when it comes to economic mobility measures, at a neighborhood level there remain deep divides across the state for children's relative chances, depending on where they live and the opportunities they can access, to move up the socioeconomic ladder. A wide swath of current and former Utah policymakers were in attendance for Chetty's presentation this week including former Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz as well as municipal government representatives from the Salt Lake City Council and other communities. In comments made following Chetty's presentation, Schultz noted his personal journey as an individual who has ascended from his childhood economic position. 'We are these numbers,' Schultz said, referencing the data from Chetty's presentation. 'Most of us started out at a different economic scale than we're currently at today. Personally, I was on the bottom end of the middle income class. I grew up in a community where I was fortunate enough to have great mentors … and (connections with) people on the upper end of the income scale."
Associated Press
10-02-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Apparo's Transformative 2025 Mission Possible Award Program Open for Nonprofit Registration
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Feb. 10, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Apparo opens their 2025 Mission Possible Award Program, a nonprofit accelerator sponsored by Accenture that takes nonprofits on ideation journeys to envision how technology can solve nonprofits' most pressing challenges. Mission Possible was launched to address Charlotte's economic mobility crisis, identified in research by Harvard economist Raj Chetty, which ranked the city last among major U.S. metro areas for upward mobility and the Triangle Area slightly above, at 48. Apparo created this program to drive systemic change and uplift economic mobility across our communities. Now open for the 2025 season, this program has equipped organizations with the frameworks to expand their impact and improve economic mobility. Each year, Mission Possible provides participants with strategic guidance from corporate skilled volunteers to create a proposal for a tech-based solution to maximize your organization's work, with two lucky organizations walking away with a $10,000 grant and up to an additional 50 hours of pro bono consulting. TRANSFORMATIVE IMPACT OF MISSION POSSIBLE AWARD PROGRAM Hope Renovations, a North Carolina nonprofit providing hands-on training in construction trades for women and gender-expansive individuals, has transformed its workforce development program by implementing Canvas learning management system (LMS). This game-changing advancement was made possible through Apparo's Mission Possible Program. Hope Renovations, the 2023 Mission Possible winner, was seeking a solution to enhance training accessibility, engagement, and scalability. The organization provides a hands-on, construction-based workforce training program to help individuals secure jobs in the skilled trades, an industry facing a massive labor shortage. However, their previous training model relied heavily on in-person instruction, limiting how many participants they could serve and requiring significant administrative work to track progress. Through Mission Possible, Hope Renovations worked with Apparo and skilled Accenture consultants to implement Canvas LMS, a leading learning management system used in educational and professional training settings. With this technology-driven solution, the nonprofit has experienced measurable improvements, including: 40 Percent Reduction in Administrative Workload: Staff now spend significantly less time managing materials, tracking participant progress, and organizing lessons- more than 300 hours of staff time annually on cohort communications alone. Increased Trainee Engagement and Flexibility: With on-demand access to structured digital coursework, participants are more engaged and better prepared for hands-on learning. Trainees can review course materials at their own pace, making it easier to accommodate different learning styles and personal schedules. Enhanced Scalability: Hope Renovations can now train more participants at once, expanding access to life-changing career opportunities. In 2023, Hope Renovations had 3 cohorts; in 2024 they have 10, and they now have a goal of 20 cohorts for 2025, doubling their service in cohort programs. 'This experience with Apparo has been a huge win for Hope Renovations,' said Sarah Campbell, Vice President of Training of Hope Renovations. 'Technology can be something that really hinders nonprofit growth, efficiency, and productivity. For a nonprofit, hindered productivity directly impacts people's lives so this type of work is incredibly valuable and sets nonprofits up for future success. I appreciate Apparo seeing the nonprofit need, filling the knowledge gap, and being there to support us.' The shift to a hybrid training model, enabled by Canvas, aligns with Hope Renovations' broader goal: to increase access to sustainable careers for individuals facing barriers to employment. With this new system in place, the organization can expand its reach beyond North Carolina, providing more individuals with the skills they need to succeed in construction and skilled trades. Hope Renovations' success demonstrates the power of technology to transform nonprofit operations and create profound, sustainable impact. Through Mission Possible, Apparo partners with nonprofits with potential for growth and provides them with customized technology solutions, expert guidance, and hands-on corporate volunteer support. 'We know that technology can be the key to breaking down barriers to economic mobility,' said Kim Lanphear, CEO of Apparo. 'Mission Possible exists to ensure that nonprofits like Hope Renovations have the digital tools they need to expand their impact and help more people build better futures.' 'Canvas makes our training more professional and efficient. It instills confidence in our trainees, staff, and community partners. Growth is necessary to continue fulfilling our mission, and we couldn't achieve this growth without a tool like this,' said Sarah Campbell, Hope Renovations Vice President of Training. 'I felt so supported by Apparo and Accenture and am so appreciative of everyone who was involved in the Mission Possible process.' Since its inception in 2017, Mission Possible—led by Apparo and Accenture—has supported nonprofits in streamlining operations, improving efficiencies, and scaling their services, proving that investing in nonprofit technology is an investment in stronger communities. Nonprofits interested in Mission Possible 2025 can learn more and apply today through March 7 at About Apparo: Apparo is a Charlotte-based 501(c)(3) organization that empowers nonprofits through technology and business process improvements and corporate volunteer partnerships that enhance capacity, amplify nonprofit missions, and create profound community impact. Learn more and get involved at NEWS SOURCE: Apparo Keywords: NonProfit and Charities, Apparo Mission Possible, Accenture, Apparo nonprofit technology, Mission Possible grant, Economic mobility, Charlotte Corporate skilled volunteering, Nonprofit technology funding, CHARLOTTE, N.C. Send2Press® Newswire. Information is believed accurate but not guaranteed. Story ID: S2P123934 AP-R15TBLLI
