The Economics of Attention

George Loewenstein and Zachary Wojtowicz

Journal of Economic Literature, 2025, vol. 63, issue 3, 1038-89

Abstract: Attention is an important resource in the modern economy and plays an increasingly prominent role in economic analysis. We summarize research on attention from both psychology and economics with a particular emphasis on its capacity to explain documented violations of classical economic theory. We also identify promising new directions for research, including attention-based utility, the recent proliferation of attentional externalities introduced by digital technology, the potential impact of artificial intelligence on the economics of attention, and the significant role that boredom, curiosity, and other motivational states play in determining how people allocate attention.

JEL-codes: C45 D83 D91 I20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1257/jel.20241665

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