Does Poverty Lower Productivity?

长期以来，发展经济学家一直对贫困陷阱感兴趣：使个人难以摆脱贫困的反馈循环。心理学和经济学交叉领域的新研究表明，人们应该关注心理微观基础。特别是，对财务问题的担忧可能会影响到个人。注意力因此减少了他们可用的认知资源；这反过来又会产生进一步加剧贫困的行为。虽然以前的工作已经探索了这些想法，但很少有证据表明这些渠道会影响实际经济结果。该项目旨在提供关于贫困对经济领域行为影响的第一个证据：工人生产率。这项研究的结果将提供第一个证据，证明贫困是如何通过认知功能直接强化自身的。这将是将心理学更彻底地纳入发展经济学的第一步，对公共政策和穷人的福祉具有重要意义。例如，如果假设的影响确实在起作用，那么生产力的障碍就会恰好发生在个人面临最大的财务困难，因此面临最大的现金需求的时候。这意味着减少波动性或减轻金融脆弱性可能对生产率产生直接的好处。此外，转移或公共福利计划可能会带来迄今尚未衡量的生产力效益。最后，贫困的假设反馈效应将成为持续不平等和社会流动性降低的潜在决定因素的证据。本研究采用为期三周的实地实验，考察收入是否通过改变认知功能直接影响劳动生产率。该实验通过实验诱导财政约束的变化，直接而清晰地测试了贫困是否会影响生产率。通过一次性支付大量工资。为了提供驱动这种关系的潜在机制是否为认知负荷的证据，该设计使用了两种互补的方法：(i)它测试贫困对生产力的估计影响是否对更依赖认知资源的制造任务更大。（二）采用突出干预，引导工人注意财务约束，并测试当（实验性地）缓解财务约束时，这种干预对生产率的负面影响是否会减弱。生产率、劳动收入、消费模式和认知功能都将被衡量。

Development economists have long been interested in poverty traps: feedback loops that make it difficult for individuals to escape poverty. New work at the intersection of psychology and economics suggests a focus on psychological micro-foundations. In particular, worries about financial problems may capture individuals? attentional and therefore decreases their available cognitive resources; this in turn can create behaviors that further worsen poverty. While previous work has explored these ideas, there is scant evidence of these channels impacting real economic outcomes. This project seeks to provide the first piece of evidence on the impact of poverty on economic field behavior: worker productivity. Results from this study would provide the first evidence on how poverty, operating through cognitive function, could directly reinforce itself. This would be a first step toward a more thorough integration of psychology within development economics, with important implications for public policy and the wellbeing of the poor. For instance, if the hypothesized effects are indeed at play, then impediments to productivity would occur precisely at times when individuals face the greatest financial trouble and therefore face the greatest need for cash. This implies that reducing volatility or mitigating financial vulnerability could have direct productivity benefits. In addition, transfer or public workfare programs could have productivity benefits that are unmeasured to-date. Finally, the hypothesized feedback effects of poverty would be evidence of an underlying determinant of persistent inequality and reduced social mobility.This study uses a three-week field experiment to examine whether income directly affects labor productivity by changing cognitive function. The experiment directly and cleanly tests whether poverty affects productivity by experimentally inducing variation in financial constraints?via large lump-sum wage payments. To provide evidence on whether the underlying mechanism that drives this relationship is cognitive load, the design makes use of two complementary approaches: (i) It tests whether the estimated impacts of poverty on productivity are larger for a manufacturing task that relies more heavily on cognitive resources. (ii) It uses a salience intervention that directs worker attention to financial constraints, and tests whether the negative effects of this intervention on productivity are dampened when financial constraints are (experimentally) eased. Productivity, labor earnings, consumption patterns, and cognitive function will all be measured.