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"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 learning 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"--
List of contents
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.
About the author
Andrew Schotter is Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Experimental Social Science at New York University.
Summary
Introduces advice into economic analysis and explores its impact on decision-making and the evolution of conventions of behavior. The investigation of conventions of behavior and the norms is of interest to a wide variety of academic disciplines ranging from economics to psychology, to sociology, and also philosophy.
Foreword
Introduces advice into economic analysis and explores its impact on decision-making and the evolution of conventions of behavior.