Rebecca Ryan, Georgetown University

About the Presentation

Individuals are sensitive to cues about economic conditions in ways that affect their beliefs and behavior. This paper experimentally tests how parents’ perceptions of children’s mobility prospects affect parental investments of time and money in child skill development. An experiment involving approximately 1,000 parents of children aged 5-17 aimed to shift parents’ beliefs regarding the possibility of future upward (downward) economic mobility in US society. We find that parents are responsive to signals about their children’s future economic mobility prospects. Using a novel measure of time investment, parents who are prompted to consider favorable prospects for their children increase their time investments to enhance their children’s skills and report being more willing to pay for resources to achieve this aim. These parents also strengthen their beliefs about the returns on parental investments, highlighting a plausible mechanism. Effects on beliefs and behavior are consistent across parents of varying income and educational levels.

Authors: Rebecca Ryan and Ariel Kalil (University of Chicago). Marlis Schneider (Norwegian School of Economics), Mesmin Destin (Northwestern University), David Silverman (Yale University), Ivan A. Hernandez (California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo)

About the Speaker

Rebecca M. Ryan is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Georgetown University. Most broadly, Professor Ryan’s research explores the implications of low-income for children’s home environments and as well as the relationship between parenting and children’s development in at-risk contexts. Both strains of research explore two fundamental influences on child well-being: the quality of parent-child interactions and the time and material resources parents are able to invest in children’s development. Her recent work explores the attitudes and beliefs that shape parental investments in children and how interventions in the home and online can enhance and increase those investments. Specifically, she is fielding a randomized controlled trial of a parenting and coparenting intervention with caregivers of infants using videochat, video-feedback and digital media to enhance parent-child and coparent interactions. She is also conducting a field experiment to increase participation in a novel home meal program, Power Packs, serving low-income, predominantly Latinx families in two semi-rural school districts; the study will also evaluate program effects on family food insecurity and nutrition, child wellbeing and academic outcomes. Her research has been continuously funded by both federal and private institutions, including the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, the National Science Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the WT Grant Foundation.

Seminar Format

Location IN PERSON: 2208 LeFrak Hall. We are requesting advanced registration so that we can track capacity.  Please use this link to RSVP for in-person attendance.

Location ONLINE VIA ZOOM: Zoom Registration Link.  Upon registration, you will receive an automatically generated email with the direct link for the seminar.

If accommodations are needed, please send request to meeting organizer (mprc-support@umd.edu) at least 72 hours prior to the event, if possible, to allow time to discuss and implement alternatives.

COVID-19 Information

MPRC public events for Fall 2025 will be a mix of in person and online via Zoom.  For in person events, all event attendees must follow current protocols.