Is there an effect of noise on producivity, full stop? And if so, how big is that? There's this psychology literature that suggests possibly something like inhibiting attention or working memory. But it could also be something like reducing the effort of workers because they don't enjoy being put in noisy working conditions. Depending on what the mechanism is, that is going to lead to different conclusions about where we should expect this to matter and what the right policy response should be.
The pandemic provided city dwellers with a break from the din of the modern world. Now the noise is coming back. What does that mean for our productivity, health, and basic sanity?