Oct. 12th, Jonathan Meer, Ph.D.– An Experimental Analysis of Charitable Donations of Time and Money

Abstract: We conduct a laboratory experiment to test if there are differences in behavior when subjects can donate either time or money to charity. Our subjects perform an effort task to earn money. In one treatment they can have their efforts accrue to a charity instead of themselves. In other treatments subjects may only earn money for their private account but then donate it to a charity. We vary the timing and availability of donation opportunities in the monetary donation settings to test the impact of subtle solicitation pressure. We find that subjects with a more opportunities to donate will donate more often and in larger amounts. Further, subjects that give effort to charity give a larger contribution than subjects who give monetary donations and we posit this difference is driven by differences in warm glow.
Dr. Jonathan Meer, a guest of the IFREE/ESI Lecture Series
Bio: Jonathan Meer is an assistant professor of economics at Texas A&M University, earning an A.B. in economics at Princeton University (2002) and a Ph.D. in Economics at Stanford University (2009). His research interests include investigating individuals’ decisions – such as whether to make a charitable donation – and their reasons for making them.

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