This paper constitutes the first economic investigation into the potential detrimental role of smartphones in the workplace based on a field experiment. We exploit the conduct of a nationwide telephone survey, for which interviewers were recruited to work individually and in single offices for half a day. This setting allows to randomly impose bans on the use of interviewers’ personal smartphones during worktime while ruling out information spillovers between treatment conditions. Although the ban was not enforceable, we observe substantial effort increases from banning smartphones in the routine task of calling households, without negative implications linked to perceived employer distrust. Analyzing the number of conducted interviews per interviewer suggests that higher efforts do not necessarily translate into economic benefits for the employer. In our broad discussion of smartphone bans and their potential impact on workplace performance, we consider further outcomes of economic relevance based on data from employee surveys and administrative phone records. Finally, we complement the findings of our field experiment with evidence from a survey experiment and a survey among managers.

本文是根据现场实验对智能手机在工作场所的潜在有害作用进行的首次经济调查。我们利用一项全国性电话调查的方式，为此招募了访问员，他们分别在单个办公室和办公室工作了半天。此设置允许在工作时间中随机禁止访问者的个人智能手机，同时排除治疗条件之间的信息溢出。尽管该禁令不是强制性的，但我们发现，在呼叫家庭的日常任务中，从禁止使用智能手机可以明显地增加了工作量，而并未产生与雇主不信任感相关的负面影响。分析每个面试官进行的面试的次数表明，加大努力不一定能为雇主带来经济利益。在我们对智能手机禁令及其对工作场所绩效的潜在影响的广泛讨论中，我们根据员工调查和行政电话记录中的数据考虑经济相关性的其他结果。最后，我们用调查实验和管理人员调查的证据来补充实地实验的结果。