Collaborative Research: Social Norms, Trust, and Intergenerational Flow of Innovations

生产率的提高和经济增长在一定程度上取决于采用改进的技术，而改进的技术又取决于新技术信息的传播。年轻人往往比拥有生产性资源并执着于旧技术的父母更早了解新技术，可能不信任他们从年轻人那里学到的新信息。另一方面，年轻人可能不信任长辈，可能不会透露他们认为长辈不会接受的适当信息，从而减缓技术进步和经济增长。这项研究项目将通过理论和实验来研究社会规范如何影响技术信息的代际流动，以及如何最好地解决信息流动中的这种摩擦。除了信息的代际传递外，该研究还研究了技术信息的代际流动是否存在性别因素。这项研究的结果可能会影响有效的信息干预措施的设计，这些干预措施可以诱导代际知识流动，以加快技术进步。调查结果将提供有关青年妇女经济赋权方面的制约因素的宝贵信息。这项研究的结果有可能加快创新步伐，加快经济增长，提高美国人的生活水平。这项研究项目将利用与150所初中的非政府组织合作伙伴的合作，研究代际知识流动中的障碍。该项目侧重于家长对学生在学校教授的技术知识的水平和相关性的信念，以及学生对父母信念的评估。它审查父母和学生是否持有系统性的偏见；将这些偏见与按性别规定的父母和学生的不同配置的传统角色相联系；并衡量信念对代际沟通模式、父母获得新技术知识和赋予青年权力的影响。研究分四个阶段进行。首先，基线调查将收集以学校为基础的技术教育计划参与者的家庭人口统计数据。其次，PI将在访谈中了解家长和学生的信念，并向随机抽取的家长和学生传递技术信息。第三，督导计划会调查分配给青少年作家庭生产的生产性投入、家长掌握新科技知识的情况，以及学生与家长之间的沟通模式。最后，这项研究将跟踪信息干预对两个学年后生产模式的影响。这项研究的结果有可能加快创新步伐，加快经济增长，从而提高美国人的生活水平。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Increased productivity and economic growth partly depends on adoption of improved technology which in turn depends on the transmission of information about new technologies. Young people tend to learn about new technologies before their parents who own productive resources and are wedded to old technologies and may not trust the new information they learn from the young. On the other hand, young people may mistrust elders and may not reveal appropriate information they think elders will not accept, thus slowing technical progress and economic growth. This research project will use theory and experiments to study how social norms affect the intergenerational flow of technological information and how best to solve this friction in information flow. In addition to intergenerational transmission of information, the research also studies whether there is a gender dimension to the intergenerational flow of technological information. The results of this study could influence the design of effective information interventions that induce intergenerational flows of knowledge to speed up technical progress. The results will offer valuable information on the constraints in the economic empowerment of young women. The results of this research has the potential to increase the pace of innovation and accelerate economic growth, and improve the living standards of Americans. This research project will leverage a collaboration with NGO partners in 150 junior high schools to study the barriers in intergenerational flow of knowledge. The project focuses on beliefs held by parents regarding the level and relevance of students’ school-taught technical knowledge, as well as students’ assessments of parents’ beliefs. It examines whether parents and students hold systematically biased beliefs; relates these biases to conventional roles prescribed for different configurations of parents and students by gender; and measures the effects of beliefs on intergenerational communication patterns, parents’ acquisition of new technical knowledge, and the empowerment of youth. The research proceeds in four stages. First, a baseline survey will collect household demographics of participants in a school-based technical education program. Second, the PIs will elicit parents’ and students’ beliefs in interviews; and deliver technical information to a random subset of parents and students. Third, the PIs will survey productive inputs allocated to youth for their home production, the acquisition of new technical knowledge among parents as well as communication patterns between students and parents. Finally, the study will track the impact of the information interventions on production patterns after two school years. The results of this research has the potential to increase the pace of innovation and accelerate economic growth, thus improving the living standards of Americans.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.