Advice, Social Learning and the Evolution of Conventions

Introduces advice into economic analysis and explores its impact on decision-making and the evolution of conventions of behavior.

Andrew Schotter (Author)

9781316518076, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 March 2023

250 pages
23.5 x 15.5 x 2.5 cm, 0.82 kg

'People usually communicate with others before making important choices. One form of communication is advice, particularly from trusted sources. A primary example is intergenerational advice, passed along from parents to children. Andrew Schotter is a pioneer regarding such advice in laboratory experiments. In this brilliant work, he describes how intergenerational advice plays out in a wide variety of environments. It is time for researchers to delve more deeply into this realm and this will help pave the way.' Gary Charness, University of California, Santa Barbara

As societies progress, old generations of social agents die and are replaced by new ones. This book explores what happens in this transition as the old guard instructs the new arrivals about the wisdom of their ways. Do new entrants listen and follow the advice of their elders or dismiss it? Is intergenerational advice welfare improving or can it be destructive? Does such advice enhance the stability of social conventions or disrupt it? Using the concept of an Intergenerational Game and the tools of game theory and experimental economics, this study delves into the process of social leaning created by intergenerational advice passed from generation to generation. This book presents a unique theoretical and empirical study of the dynamics of social conventions not offered elsewhere.

1. Introduction
Part I. Background: 2. Advice
3. Conventions, social learning, and Intergenerational games
Part II. Coordination, Distribution, and Trust Conventions: 4. On the evolution of co-ordination and inequality preserving conventions- -the battle of the sexes revisited
5. Conventional behavior and bargaining – – advice and behavior in intergenerational
6. Trust and trustworthiness
Part III. The Impact of Public Advice and Common Knowledge: 7. The impact of private and public advice in the minimum effort game
8. Advice and common knowledge in the 2/3rd's guessing game: does advice increase strategic sophistication
Part IV. The Value of Advice: 9. Learning with the advice of a meddlesome boss
10. Advice and social learning
11. The market for advice
Part V. Advice and Economic Mechanisms: 12. Chatting and matching
13. School matching and learning under the influence of intergenerational advice
14. Conclusions.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], Microeconomics [KCC]