We examine heterogeneity in the effect of poor financial circumstances on attention. Our analysis uses data from an experiment, which randomly assigned low-income individuals to perform a cognitive test before or after payday. On average, and based on traditional subgroup analysis, the experiment did not suggest that the poorer financial circumstances before payday impeded cognitive function. Using the causal forest method, however, our heterogeneity analysis suggests that there are indeed detrimental effects among young and elderly individuals with very low incomes. We can confirm this finding in an independent experiment, using only traditional subgroup analysis.

我们研究了财务状况不佳对注意力的影响的异质性。我们的分析使用来自实验的数据，该实验随机分配低收入人群在发薪日之前或之后进行认知测试。平均而言，根据传统的亚组分析，该实验并未表明发薪日之前较差的财务状况会阻碍认知功能。然而，使用因果森林方法，我们的异质性分析表明，收入极低的年轻人和老年人确实存在不利影响。我们可以在独立实验中证实这一发现，仅使用传统的亚组分析。