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Blood donation and the nature of altruism

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  • Wildman, John
  • Hollingsworth, Bruce

Abstract

Approximately 10% of people have O-negative blood. Because it can be transfused into almost anyone, hospitals particularly value such blood. We use this fact, together with the assumption that blood types are exogenously assigned by nature, to design an empirical inquiry into altruism. We also investigate the timing of donations, especially focussing on the behaviour of new and established donors. We show that O-negative blood donors donate no more often than other people. Thus individuals apparently do not exhibit pure altruism. We speculate that instead blood donors may be driven by a broad notion of duty rather than by a far-sighted, rational unselfishness.

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  • Wildman, John & Hollingsworth, Bruce, 2009. "Blood donation and the nature of altruism," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 492-503, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:28:y:2009:i:2:p:492-503
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    Cited by:

    1. Bruhin, Adrian & Goette, Lorenz & Haenni, Simon & Jiang, Lingqing, 2020. "Spillovers of prosocial motivation: Evidence from an intervention study on blood donors," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    2. Goette, Lorenz & Stutzer, Alois, 2020. "Blood donations and incentives: Evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 52-74.
    3. Paraskevaidis, Pavlos & Andriotis, Konstantinos, 2017. "Altruism in tourism: Social Exchange Theory vs Altruistic Surplus Phenomenon in host volunteering," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 26-37.
    4. Joan Costa-Font & Mireia Jofre-Bonet & Steven T. Yen, 2013. "Not All Incentives Wash Out the Warm Glow: The Case of Blood Donation Revisited," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(4), pages 529-551, November.
    5. Sara R. Machado, 2020. "Estimating the Blood Supply Elasticity: Evidence from a Universal Scale Benefit Scheme," Papers 2012.01814, arXiv.org.
    6. Juan M. Cabasés Hita & María Errea Rodríguez, 2010. "Attitudes towards blood and living organ donations," Documentos de Trabajo - Lan Gaiak Departamento de Economía - Universidad Pública de Navarra 1004, Departamento de Economía - Universidad Pública de Navarra.
    7. Ignacio Abásolo & Aki Tsuchiya, 2012. "Blood Donation as a Public Good: An Empirical Investigation of the Free-Rider," Working Papers 2012004, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics.
    8. Sun, Tianshu & Lu, Susan Feng & Jin, Ginger Zhe, 2016. "Solving shortage in a priceless market: Insights from blood donation," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 149-165.
    9. Wilson, Nicholas, 2018. "Altruism in preventive health behavior: At-scale evidence from the HIV/AIDS pandemic," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 119-129.
    10. Nagurney, Anna & Dutta, Pritha, 2019. "Competition for blood donations," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 103-114.
    11. Michael Haylock & Patrick Kampkötter & Mario Macis & Jürgen Sauter & Susanne Seitz & Robert Slonim & Daniel Wiesen & Alexander H. Schmidt, 2022. "Improving the Availability of Unrelated Stem Cell Donors: Evidence from a Major Donor Registry," NBER Working Papers 29857, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Shusaku Sasaki , & Yoshifumi Funasaki & Hirofumi Kurokawa & Fumio Ohtake, 2018. "Blood Type and Blood Donation Behaviors: An Empirical Test of Pure Altruism Theory," ISER Discussion Paper 1029, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    13. Ignacio Abásolo & Aki Tsuchiya, 2014. "Blood donation as a public good: an empirical investigation of the free rider problem," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 15(3), pages 313-321, April.
    14. Josefa D. Martín-Santana & Lorena Robaina-Calderín & Eva Reinares-Lara & Laura Romero-Domínguez, 2019. "Knowing the Blood Nondonor to Activate Behaviour," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-22, November.
    15. Nicola Lacetera & Mario Macis & Robert Slonim, 2014. "Rewarding Volunteers: A Field Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(5), pages 1107-1129, May.
    16. Bilancini, Ennio & Boncinelli, Leonardo & Di Paolo, Roberto & Menicagli, Dario & Pizziol, Veronica & Ricciardi, Emiliano & Serti, Francesco, 2022. "Prosocial behavior in emergencies: Evidence from blood donors recruitment and retention during the COVID-19 pandemic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    17. Leipnitz, Sigrun & de Vries, Martha & Clement, Michel & Mazar, Nina, 2018. "Providing health checks as incentives to retain blood donors — Evidence from two field experiments," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 628-640.

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