Toward an Understanding of the Economics of Charity: Evidence from a Field Experiment / Craig Landry, Andreas Lange, John A. List, Michael K. Price, Nicholas G. Rupp.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Landry, Craig.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Lange, Andreas.

List, John A.

Price, Michael K.

Rupp, Nicholas G.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w11611.

NBER working paper series no. w11611

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Toward an Understanding of the Economics of Charity

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2005.

Summary:

This study develops theory and uses a door-to-door fundraising field experiment to explore the economics of charity. We approached nearly 5000 households, randomly divided into four experimental treatments, to shed light on key issues on the demand side of charitable fundraising. Empirical results are in line with our theory: in gross terms, our lottery treatments raised considerably more money than our voluntary contributions treatments. Interestingly, we find that a one standard deviation increase in female solicitor physical attractiveness is similar to that of the lottery incentive¡ªthe magnitude of the estimated difference in gifts is roughly equivalent to the treatment effect of moving from our theoretically most attractive approach (lotteries) to our least attractive approach (voluntary contributions).

Notes:

Print version record

September 2005.