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.
