Understanding Dividends, Teacher Quality, and Social Mobility

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This chapter explores the rationale behind corporations paying dividends and the impact of tax reforms on dividend payments. It also delves into the significance of teacher quality in kindergarten education, analyzing the long-term impact of experienced teachers on students' outcomes. Additionally, the discussion touches on predicting social mobility in children based on early childhood test scores and the importance of investing in children in the upper tail of potential outcomes for their success.

A high school teacher once told Raj Chetty he’d some day serve on the Federal Reserve Board. At the the time Raj thought the comment was silly, since he was busy working in the laboratory on staining techniques for electron microscopy and was set to become a biomedical scientist. About a decade later, however, and Chetty would become one of the youngest tenured economics professors at Harvard and would soon win both a John Bates Clark medal and a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship. Now at Stanford, he’s one of the most-cited economists in the world.

Raj’s conversation with Tyler spans that well-cited body of work and more, including social mobility, the value-add of kindergarten teachers, why corporations pay dividends, his love of Piano Guys, the most underrated US state, and why okra may have been the secret of his success.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Recorded March 25th, 2017 Other ways to connect

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