Speaker: Priscila Souza, Toulouse School of Economics

Title: Motivations for Philanthropic Behavior

Abstract: Private contribution to philanthropic causes has grown substantially during the past decades. Annually, Americans donate gifts of money that amounts to 2 percent or more of the GDP, and over a quarter of Americans volunteer their time. I use data from the PSID supplement on philanthropy
(2001-2009) to study what motivates charitable behavior. I empirically distinguish and quantify two types of explanations: pecuniary motivations (tax benefits, increased human capital, and networks) and non-pecuniary motivations (altruism, social conformity, peer pressure, and social admiration). This is accomplished by comparing the costs and returns of both giving money and becoming personally involved in charitable activities. Since the choice between giving and volunteering is endogenous to the costs and returns expected, I explore exogenous variation in the cost of giving and volunteering implied by different regulations and tax breaks over time or across states. This allows me to investigate the agents' choice of whether to give money or time and how their motivations differ between these two cases.

Organizer: Alexander Koch