Raj Chetty, 33, is an Indian-American economist who accepted a tenured professorship at Harvard University while still in his 20s. He was awarded a MacArthur “genius grant†last week for his work in the emerging field of behavioral public finance, i.e., using empirical data to measure how economic policies and public-sector investment affect individual behavior and social outcomes.
READING What I often do is read the working papers of economists affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research. You come across the latest work of economists at all universities on various topics like health, education and other policy issues. On a broad level, you see that there are now much better sources of data in economics research. We used to rely on surveys, but now we have administrative data sources from health care, schools, grocery scanners, etc., so we don't have to rely just on what people tell us.
LISTENING Pandora stations seeded with OneRepublic or contemporary Bollywood musicians like A. R. Rahman, who blends traditional Indian melodies with Western music.
WATCHING A documentary I really liked was called “Kumare,†which follows an Indian-American guy who transforms himself into a guru. He studies in India, grows a beard and has the robes and then develops a following in Phoenix. At the end he reveals he's just a kid who grew up in New Jersey. The message is that spirituality and faith is not about specific people, it's within you.
FOLLOWING I surf Web sites of colleagues including David Card, a labor economist at Berkeley whom I tremendously respect. I also keep track of Jesse Shapiro at the University of Chicago, who does work on the economics of media, and my Harvard colleague Greg Mankiw, who blogs broadly about economics. I also like the Piano Guys on YouTube - very creative renditions of classical and popular music.
CONCENTRATING One gadget that I love is my Bose noise-canceling headphones - great on long trips to reduce noise fatigue. When you are trying to think deeply about a problem on a flight, it's hard to really zone in without them.
EATING Vegan “charcuterie†at Gather, a restaurant in Berkeley, Calif. It has really nice marinades and nice combinations.
