The Opportunity Atlas: Mapping the Childhood Roots of Social Mobility

Raj Chetty, John Friedman, Nathaniel Hendren, Maggie R. Jones and Sonya R. Porter

No 25147, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We construct a public atlas of mean outcomes in adulthood by childhood Census tract. Outcomes vary sharply across neighborhoods: for children whose parents earn $27,000, the standard deviation of mean household income in adulthood is $10,420 across tracts within counties. Only half the variation in outcomes is explained by traditional measures of neighborhood opportunity like poverty rates. Experimental and quasi-experimental estimates indicate that 60% of the variation in outcomes across neighborhoods is driven by causal effects. We demonstrate how our statistics can be applied to better target policies to improve low-opportunity areas and help families move to affordable high-opportunity areas.

JEL-codes: H0 J0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-lab and nep-ure
Note: CH ED EFG LS PE
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (130)

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Working Paper: The Opportunity Atlas: Mapping the Childhood Roots of Social Mobility (2018)
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