Marlis M. Schneider defended her PhD
On Friday, 4 September, Marlis M. Schneider held a trial lecture on a prescribed topic and defended her thesis for the PhD degree at NHH.
Title of thesis:
“Essays on Belief Formation in the Family”
Parents shape their children and their development in many ways. One important pathway is through parental beliefs. In her thesis, Marlis M. Schneider examines how these beliefs are formed, communicated within families, and influenced by broader societal forces. The dissertation uses experimental methods and incentivised measures, drawing on field studies and a large-scale survey.
The first chapter examines whether parents process information about their children objectively. In a large-scale lab-in-the-field experiment in Norway, Schneider finds that parents place substantial weight on positive signals about their child's prosocial behaviour, but almost none on negative signals, particularly when these threaten parents' self-image. When it comes to mathematics, however, parents respond similarly to positive and negative signals, suggesting more objective belief updating. The findings have implications for how feedback is provided in education.
The second chapter studies how communication between parents and children shapes beliefs. The experiment varies whether parents can send their child a message about expected performance on verbal and mathematical tasks, and whether the message is shown before or after the tasks. Parents send more positive messages than their private beliefs imply, particularly before the tasks, suggesting an intention to motivate their child. These messages increase children's confidence, but not their performance.
The third chapter turns to parents' perceptions of their children's future economic mobility. In a large-scale survey experiment with U.S. parents, Schneider and her co-authors find that inducing a more positive outlook increases measures of parental investment and optimism about their returns. The findings suggest that information about economic mobility can influence parental decisions, potentially with consequences across generations.
Taken together, the dissertation provides new insights into how parental beliefs are formed and communicated, and how they shape family decision-making and children's development.
Prescribed topic for the trial lecture:
“The Family Origins of Human Capital”
Trial lecture:
10:15, Aud. Karl Borch, NHH
Defense:
12:15, Aud. Karl Borch, NHH
Members of the evaluation committee:
Professor Mathias Philip Ekström (chair of the committee), Department of Economics, NHH
Professor Silke Anger, Institute for Employment Research, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg
Associate Professor Ulf Zölitz, Department of Economics, University of Zurich
Supervisors:
Professor Alexander W. Cappelen (main supervisor), Department of Economics, NHH
Professor Kjell G. Salvanes, Department of Economics, NHH