ANXIETY AND PERFORMANCE: AN ENDOGENOUS LEARNING-BY-DOING MODEL∗

In this article, we show that a standard economic model, the endogenous learning-by-doing model, captures several major themes from the anxiety literature in psychology. In our model, anxiety is a fully endogenous construct that can be separated naturally into its cognitive and physiological components. As such, our results are directly comparable with hypotheses and evidence from psychology. We show that anxiety can serve a motivating function, which suggests potential applications in the principal–agent literature.