Does Poverty Lower Productivity?

发展经济学家长期以来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的一项新研究表明，人们关注的是心理学的微观基础。特别是，对财务问题的担忧可能会困扰个人？这会影响他们的注意力，从而减少他们可用的认知资源；这反过来又会造成进一步加剧贫困的行为。虽然之前的研究已经探索了这些想法，但几乎没有证据表明这些渠道影响了实际经济结果。这个项目试图提供关于贫困对经济领域行为的影响的第一个证据：工人生产率。这项研究的结果将为贫困如何通过认知功能直接加强自身提供第一个证据。这将是将心理学更彻底地融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影响。例如，如果假设的影响确实在起作用，那么生产率的障碍恰恰会发生在个人面临最大的财务困境，因此面临最大的现金需求时。这意味着，降低波动性或减轻金融脆弱性可能会带来直接的生产率好处。此外，转移或公共工作福利计划可能会产生迄今为止无法衡量的生产率收益。最后，贫困的假设反馈效应将是持续不平等和社会流动性减少的潜在决定因素的证据。本研究使用为期三周的现场实验来检验收入是否通过改变认知功能直接影响劳动生产率。这项实验直接而干净地测试了贫困是否通过实验导致财务约束的变化--通过一次性支付大笔工资--来影响生产率。为了证明驱动这种关系的潜在机制是否是认知负荷，该设计使用了两个互补的方法：(I)它测试对于更严重依赖认知资源的制造任务，贫困对生产率的估计影响是否更大。(Ii)它使用了一种显著干预措施，将员工的注意力引导到财务约束上，并测试当(实验上)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。生产力、劳动收入、消费模式和认知功能都将得到衡量。

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.