Parental Guidance and Supervised Learning

Joint with: Alessandro Lizzeri

We propose a simple theoretical model of supervised learning that is potentially useful to interpret a number of empirical phenomena relevant to the nature-nurture debate. The model captures a basic trade-off between sheltering the child from the consequences of his mistakes, and allowing him to learn from experience. We characterize the optimal parenting

policy and its comparative-statics properties. We then show that key features of the optimal policy can be useful to interpret provocative findings from behavioral genetics.

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