Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: Income, cognitive tax, and economic decision-making among the urban poor

经济学博士论文研究：城市贫民的收入、认知税和经济决策

• 批准号: 1949331
• 负责人: John Hoddinott
• 金额: $ 2.4万
• 依托单位: Cornell University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-05-01 至 2021-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1949331&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Economics; Income

Research indicates that financial stress faced by the poor reduces their abilities to make informed choices (cognitive constraints). This results in inefficient decision-making among the poor in countries around the world. For example, the poor frequently do not take advantage of poverty-reducing programs and services in both developing and developed countries. This study explores whether these cognitive constraints explain inefficient economic decisions and behaviors observed among the poor. This research project focuses on informal workers in urban areas whose incomes fluctuate substantially in the short-term, in ways that are both expected and unexpected. The experiment involves giving some entrepreneurs in the informal sector (treated group) unexpected increased income through large unexpected purchases and offer them tasks that involve business decision making. By comparing decision-making ability of the treated with those of not treated, the researchers will be able to draw policy implications from the experiment. This research will indicate the potential demand for such policy design solutions as nudging reminders, default enrolment, and timing application of procedures to coincide with periods of higher cognition. The results of this research will help develop policies to improve decision making of people with cognitive constraints, hence increase the take-up rate of poverty reducing programs among the poor. This will help establish the US as the global leader in poverty reduction research.To understand the relationship between income and economic decision-making, this research project will conduct a lab-in-the-field experiment in an urban informal markets. The experiment is designed to test the hypothesis that an increase in income leads to improved economic decision-making. This research exploits the timing of market days to study the effect of increases in income and send mystery shoppers to make purchases from the traders to generate realistic, but unexpected increases in income. Following these income shocks, the PIs then measure economic decision-making using an incentivized, menu choice game that assesses consistency of decision-making ability and assess real-life economic decision-making by providing traders with information about an opportunity to receive free mobile credit. Finally, the PIs will measure attention and working memory to assess the cognitive mechanism. The results of this research will help develop policies to improve decision making of people with cognitive constraints, hence increase the take-up rate of poverty reducing programs among the poor. This will help establish the US as the global leader in poverty reduction research.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.

研究表明，穷人面临的经济压力降低了他们做出明智选择的能力（认知限制）。这导致世界各国的穷人决策效率低下。 例如，无论是发展中国家还是发达国家，穷人往往都没有利用减贫方案和服务。本研究探讨这些认知限制是否解释了穷人中观察到的低效经济决策和行为。该研究项目重点关注城市地区的非正规工人，他们的收入在短期内会以预期和意外的方式大幅波动。该实验涉及通过大量意想不到的采购为非正规部门（接受治疗的群体）的一些企业家提供意想不到的收入增加，并向他们提供涉及商业决策的任务。 通过比较接受治疗者和未接受治疗者的决策能力，研究人员将能够从实验中得出政策含义。这项研究将表明对政策设计解决方案的潜在需求，例如助推提醒、默认注册以及程序的定时应用，以与较高认知时期相一致。 这项研究的结果将有助于制定政策，改善认知受限人群的决策能力，从而提高贫困人口减贫计划的参与率。 这将有助于确立美国在减贫研究方面的全球领先地位。为了了解收入与经济决策之间的关系，该研究项目将在城市非正式市场进行实验室现场实验。该实验旨在检验收入增加会改善经济决策的假设。这项研究利用集市日的时间来研究收入增加的影响，并派神秘顾客从交易员那里购买商品，以产生现实但意想不到的收入增加。在这些收入冲击之后，PI 然后使用激励菜单选择游戏来衡量经济决策，该游戏评估决策能力的一致性，并通过向交易者提供有关获得免费移动信贷机会的信息来评估现实生活中的经济决策。最后，PI 将测量注意力和工作记忆来评估认知机制。 这项研究的结果将有助于制定政策，改善认知受限人群的决策能力，从而提高贫困人口减贫计划的参与率。 这将有助于美国成为减贫研究领域的全球领导者。该奖项反映了 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，认为值得支持。