Chetty received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 2003 at the age of 23 and is one of the youngest tenured professors in the university's history. He has been named one of the top economists in the world by the New York Times and the Economist magazine. He was awarded a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship in 2012. In 2013, Chetty became one of the youngest recipients of the John Bates Clark medal, given by the American Economic Association to the best American economist under age 40.