Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: Noise, Attention and Performance

噪音污染在全球范围内普遍存在，预计在程度、频率和严重程度上都会增长（Goines和Hagler 2007）。数十年的认知科学研究已经证实，噪音会对在校儿童的学习和成就产生负面影响（例如，Shield and Dockrell 2003; Evans and Lepore 1993），而最近的经济学研究表明，噪音也会降低工人的生产率（Dean 2017）。然而，噪音影响性能和生产力的确切机制仍然不确定和无法量化。本项目旨在审查一种经常被提出的机制的重要性，即注意力。虽然关注成本是经济行为的核心，但只有最近的进展才能将其量化（Caplin et al. 2018）。本项目将采用这种新的测量方法，并将首次量化噪音在注意力方面的成本。该项目还将评估个人在多大程度上意识到这些成本影响。获得噪音的无混淆成本估算，并知道这些成本是否被正确感知的能力，对政策制定者具有重要意义。是否正确认识到噪音污染的有害影响，决定了决策者是否应该优先考虑提高认识和开展教育活动，还是采取主动的噪音控制策略。更好地估计噪音成本是评估诸如建造隔音屏障、改变道路轮廓、交通限制和基于噪音地图的城市规划等减少噪音策略的关键投入。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。为了量化噪声的成本，将理论框架与实验室实验相结合。理论框架作为一种精确和客观的测量工具，允许从选择数据中回收注意力成本，就像生产成本可以在竞争供应中回收一样。在此框架的基础上，噪声被建模为：(i)注意力边际成本的变化，（ii）直接负效用，以及（iii）对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音污染来源：语音和城市噪音的注意力成本。参与者在安静和嘈杂的条件下完成一项激励任务后，他们对自己表现的信念以及他们在安静条件下最后一轮的支付意愿（WTP）将被激发出来。将这些信念和WTP与参与者进行比较？估计的费用将有助提高市民对噪音影响的认识及采取保护措施。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.