Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: Noise, Attention and Performance

噪音污染在地球仪中普遍存在，并且预计其范围、频率和严重程度会增加（Goines and Hagler 2007）。几十年的认知科学研究已经证实，噪音对学童的学习和成就有负面影响（例如，噪音对儿童的学习和成就有负面影响）。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力（Dean 2017）。然而，噪音损害性能和生产力的确切机制仍然不确定和无法量化。该项目旨在研究一个经常被提及的机制的重要性，即注意力。虽然对经济行为至关重要，但只有最近的进展才能量化注意力的成本（Caplin et al. 2018）。该项目将采用这种新的测量方法，并将成为第一个从注意力角度量化噪音成本的项目。该项目还将评估个人在多大程度上意识到这些成本影响。获得无混淆的噪声成本估计，并知道这些成本是否被正确感知的能力，对政策制定者有重要意义。噪声污染的有害影响是否被正确地感知决定了是否意识和教育运动，或主动噪声控制策略应该是政策制定者的优先事项。更好地估计噪音成本是评估噪音消减策略的关键输入，例如建造隔音屏障、改变道路轮廓、交通限制和基于噪音地图的城市规划。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，将理论框架与实验室实验相结合。理论框架作为一个精确和客观的测量设备，允许注意力的成本，以相同的方式从选择数据中回收的生产成本可以在竞争性供应。在这个框架的基础上，噪声被建模为：（i）注意力的边际成本的变化，（ii）直接负效用，（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两个常见的噪声污染源在实践中的注意成本：语音和城市噪声。参与者在安静和嘈杂的条件下完成一项激励任务后，他们对自己的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）将被引出。将这些信念和支付意愿与参与者进行比较？该奖项反映了NSF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.