Publication by Stefanie Schmitt and Markus Schlatterer in the Journal of Economics & Human Biology

In this article, we analyze the relationship between poverty and limited attention. We use data of an inattentional blindness experiment that is included in the Innovation Sample of the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP-IS) to investigate whether the financial strain of poverty affects attention allocation. We provide evidence that the poor are significantly less inattentional blind, i.e., the poor are more likely to notice unexpected events. In addition, we find evidence for a payday effect. We show that subjects are more likely to be inattentional blind after their payday, when they are comparatively richer.

Schmitt, Stefanie Y. and Markus G. Schlatterer (2021): Poverty and limited attention, Economics and Human Biology, 41, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2021.100987.