Japan Times:
Nurture as important as nature for success
16 December 2017
How about the notion that smarts determine life success? That idea too has come under assault from recent research. A recent paper by economists Alex Bell, Raj Chetty, Xavier Jaravel, Neviana Petkova, and John Van Reenen -- a star-studded list of names -- finds that at least for certain kinds of achievement, factors other than natural ability matter quite a lot. Related publications: ‘Who Becomes an Inventor in America? The Importance of Exposure to Innovation’, Alex Bell, Raj Chetty, Xavier Jaravel, Neviana Petkova and John Van Reenen, mimeo, December 2017.