Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: Noise, Attention and Performance

噪声污染在全球范围内普遍存在，并预计将在范围、频率和严重程度上增加(Goines和Hagler 2007)。几十年的认知科学研究已经确定，噪音对学龄儿童的学习和成就(例如。Shield和Dockrell 2003年；Evans和Lepore 1993年)，而最近的经济学研究表明噪音也降低了工人的生产率(Dean 2017)。然而，噪声影响绩效和生产率的确切机制仍然不确定，也没有量化。该项目旨在审查一种经常被建议的机制的重要性，这就是注意力。虽然是经济行为的核心，但只有最近的进步才能使注意力的成本得以量化(Caplin等人。2018年)。该项目将应用这一新的测量方法，并首次从注意力的角度量化噪音的成本。该项目还将评估个人在多大程度上意识到这些成本影响。对政策制定者来说，能够获得准确的噪声成本估计，并知道这些成本是否被正确感知，具有重要的意义。是否正确认识到噪声污染的有害影响，决定了是宣传和教育活动，还是积极的噪声控制战略应该是政策制定者的优先事项。对噪声成本的更好估计对于评估诸如建造声屏障、改变道路轮廓、交通限制和基于噪声地图的城市规划等降噪战略的评估是至关重要的。此外，这项工作将有助于更好地评估学校的位置和工作场所的设计。为了量化噪音的成本，将结合理论框架和实验室实验。该理论框架作为一种精确和客观的衡量手段，允许从选择的数据中回收注意力成本，就像在竞争性供应中回收生产成本一样。在这个框架的基础上，噪声被模拟为：(I)注意力的边际成本的变化，(Ii)直接的非效用，以及(Iii)关于噪声对生产力影响的信念。然后，设计了一个实验来估计实践中两种常见的噪声污染源：语音和城市噪声的注意成本。在参与者在安静和嘈杂的条件下完成一项受激励的任务后，他们对自己表现的信念以及他们在安静条件下支付最后一轮费用(WTP)的意愿将被激发出来。将这些信念和WTP与参与者进行比较？估算的成本将有助于了解噪声影响和采取保护措施。这一奖励反映了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。

Noise pollution is pervasive around the globe and predicted to grow in extent, frequency and severity (Goines and Hagler 2007). Decades of cognitive science research has established that noise negatively affects the learning and attainments of school children (ex. Shield and Dockrell 2003; Evans and Lepore 1993), while recent work in economics has shown that noise also lowers worker productivity (Dean 2017). However, the exact mechanism through which noise impairs performance and productivity remains uncertain and unquantified. This project aims at examining the importance of an often-suggested mechanism, which is attention. While central to economic behavior, only recent advances enable costs of attention to be quantified (Caplin et al. 2018). This project will apply this new measurement method and be the first to quantify the costs of noise in terms of attention. This project will also assess to what extent individuals are aware of these cost impacts. The ability to obtain unconfounded cost estimates of noise, and know whether these costs are correctly perceived, have important implications for policy makers. Whether the detrimental effects of noise pollution are correctly perceived determines whether awareness and educational campaigns, or active noise control strategies should be the policy maker's priority. Better estimates of the costs of noise are a crucial input for the valuation of noise abatement strategies such as building of acoustic barriers, changes in road profiles, traffic restrictions, and urban planning based on noise maps. In addition, this work will help better assess the location of schools and design of workplaces.In order to quantify the costs of noise, a theoretical framework will be combined together with a lab experiment. The theoretical framework serves as a precise and objective measurement device that allows costs of attention to be recovered from choice data in the same way as costs of production can be recovered in competitive supply. Building on this framework, noise is modeled as: (i) a change in the marginal costs of attention, (ii) a direct disutility, and (iii) beliefs about the productivity impacts of noise. Then, an experiment is designed to estimate the costs of attention of two common sources of noise pollution in practice: speech and city noise. After participants work on an incentivized task - both under quiet and noisy conditions, their beliefs about their performance as well as their willingness to pay (WTP) for a final round in quiet conditions will be elicited. Comparing these beliefs and WTP to the participants? estimated costs will shed light on awareness of noise impacts and adoption of protective measures.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.