IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jculte/v42y2018i4d10.1007_s10824-018-9318-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Charity and public libraries: Does government funding crowd out donations?

Author

Listed:
  • Amir Borges Ferreira Neto

    (West Virginia University)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the determinants of donations to public libraries testing the following hypothesis: Is there a crowd out effect from government funding of public libraries? I look at novel data, the Public Library Survey, and use an unbalanced panel of public libraries across the USA from 2000 to 2013. The results suggest a crowd in effect with an inverted U shape in all levels of government. Local government is associated with 4–6 cents increase in donations, state government with 20–23 cents increase, and federal government with 75 cents to 1 dollar and 33 cents.

Suggested Citation

  • Amir Borges Ferreira Neto, 2018. "Charity and public libraries: Does government funding crowd out donations?," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 42(4), pages 525-542, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:jculte:v:42:y:2018:i:4:d:10.1007_s10824-018-9318-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s10824-018-9318-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10824-018-9318-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10824-018-9318-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arthur C. Brooks, 2003. "Do Government Subsidies To Nonprofits Crowd Out Donations or Donors?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 31(2), pages 166-179, March.
    2. Jon M. Bakija & William G. Gale & Joel B. Slemrod, 2003. "Charitable Bequests and Taxes on Inheritances and Estates: Aggregate Evidence from across States and Time," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(2), pages 366-370, May.
    3. James Andreoni, 1995. "Warm-Glow versus Cold-Prickle: The Effects of Positive and Negative Framing on Cooperation in Experiments," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 110(1), pages 1-21.
    4. Clotfelter, Charles T., 1980. "Tax incentives and charitable giving: evidence from a panel of taxpayers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 319-340, June.
    5. Harbaugh, William T., 1998. "What do donations buy?: A model of philanthropy based on prestige and warm glow," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 269-284, February.
    6. Andreoni, James & Scholz, John Karl, 1998. "An Econometric Analysis of Charitable Giving with Interdependent Preferences," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 36(3), pages 410-428, July.
    7. Bhatt, Rachana, 2010. "The impact of public library use on reading, television, and academic outcomes," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 148-166, September.
    8. Payne, A. Abigail, 1998. "Does the government crowd-out private donations? New evidence from a sample of non-profit firms," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 323-345, September.
    9. Okten, Cagla & Weisbrod, Burton A., 2000. "Determinants of donations in private nonprofit markets," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 255-272, February.
    10. Feldstein, Martin S & Taylor, Amy, 1976. "The Income Tax and Charitable Contributions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(6), pages 1201-1222, November.
    11. William Beranek & David R. Kamerschen & Richard H. Timberlake, 2010. "Charitable Donations and the Estate Tax: A Tale of Two Hypotheses," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(3), pages 1054-1078, July.
    12. Walter O. Simmons & Rosemarie Emanuele, 2004. "Does Government Spending Crowd Out Donations of Time and Money?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 32(5), pages 498-511, September.
    13. Gruber, Jonathan & Hungerman, Daniel M., 2007. "Faith-based charity and crowd-out during the great depression," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(5-6), pages 1043-1069, June.
    14. Andreoni, James, 1989. "Giving with Impure Altruism: Applications to Charity and Ricardian Equivalence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(6), pages 1447-1458, December.
    15. Richard STEINBERG, 1991. "Does Government Spending Crowd Out Donations?," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(4), pages 591-612, October.
    16. Andreoni, James, 1990. "Impure Altruism and Donations to Public Goods: A Theory of Warm-Glow Giving?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 100(401), pages 464-477, June.
    17. Crumpler, Heidi & Grossman, Philip J., 2008. "An experimental test of warm glow giving," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(5-6), pages 1011-1021, June.
    18. Reece, William S, 1979. "Charitable Contributions: New Evidence on Household Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(1), pages 142-151, March.
    19. Brown, Eleanor & Lankford, Hamilton, 1992. "Gifts of money and gifts of time estimating the effects of tax prices and available time," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 321-341, April.
    20. Khanna, Jyoti & Posnett, John & Sandler, Todd, 1995. "Charity donations in the UK: New evidence based on panel data," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 257-272, February.
    21. Clotfelter, Charles T, 1980. "Tax Incentives and Charitable Giving: Evidence from a Panel of Taxpayers," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 319-340, June.
    22. David Yermack, 2017. "Donor governance and financial management in prominent US art museums," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 41(3), pages 215-235, August.
    23. Roland Menges & Carsten Schroeder & Stefan Traub, 2005. "Altruism, Warm Glow and the Willingness-to-Donate for Green Electricity: An Artefactual Field Experiment," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 31(4), pages 431-458, August.
    24. Francesca Borgonovi & Michael O'Hare, 2004. "The Impact of the National Endowment for the Arts in the United States: Institutional and Sectoral Effects on Private Funding," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 28(1), pages 21-36, February.
    25. David Maddison, 2004. "Causality and Museum Subsidies," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 28(2), pages 89-108, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Amir Borges Ferreira Neto, 2023. "Do public libraries impact local labour markets? Evidence from Appalachia," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 216-238, April.
    2. McCannon, Bryan C. & Ferreira Neto, Amir B., 2021. "Charitable giving for cultural goods: Asymmetric gender responses to votes on tax increases," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    3. Andrade Agudelo, Doris Lilia & Fernández-Cantero, Angy Lorena & Velásquez-Galeano, Dayana Andrea, 2023. "Efficient Provision of Public Goods: Supply and Demand of Public Libraries in Colombia," Revista Finanzas y Politica Economica, Universidad Católica de Colombia, vol. 15(2), pages 307-330, July.
    4. Brian Garrod & David Dowell, 2020. "The Role of Childhood Participation in Cultural Activities in the Promotion of Pro-Social Behaviours in Later Life," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-16, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Korenok, Oleg & Millner, Edward L. & Razzolini, Laura, 2013. "Impure altruism in dictators' giving," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 1-8.
    2. Ferguson, Eamonn & Flynn, Niall, 2016. "Moral relativism as a disconnect between behavioural and experienced warm glow," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 163-175.
    3. Backus, Peter, 2010. "Is charity a homogeneous good?," Economic Research Papers 270773, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    4. Backus, Peter, 2010. "Is charity a homogeneous good?," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 951, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    5. Gruber, Jonathan & Hungerman, Daniel M., 2007. "Faith-based charity and crowd-out during the great depression," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(5-6), pages 1043-1069, June.
    6. Franz Hackl & Martin Halla & Gerald Pruckner, 2012. "Volunteering and the state," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 151(3), pages 465-495, June.
    7. Reinstein, David, 2006. "Does One Contribution Come at the Expense of Another? Empirical Evidence on Substitution Between Charitable Donations," Economics Discussion Papers 2938, University of Essex, Department of Economics.
    8. Mark Ottoni-Wilhelm & Lise Vesterlund & Huan Xie, 2017. "Why Do People Give? Testing Pure and Impure Altruism," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(11), pages 3617-3633, November.
    9. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:10:y:2002:i:1:p:1-14 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Vincent C.H. Chua & Chung Ming Wong, 2003. "The Role of United Charities in Fundraising: The Case of Singapore," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(3), pages 433-464, September.
    11. Zachary Halberstam & James R. Hines Jr., 2023. "Quality-Aware Tax Incentives for Charitable Contributions," CESifo Working Paper Series 10250, CESifo.
    12. William Smith & Cyril Chang, 2002. "Shipping the good apples out: a note on contributions of time and money," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 10(1), pages 1-14.
    13. James Andreoni & Abigail Payne, 2007. "Crowding out Both Sides of the Philanthropy Market: Evidence from a Panel of Charities," Levine's Bibliography 122247000000001769, UCLA Department of Economics.
    14. Benediktson, Mathias Nylandsted, 2018. "Investigating the U-Shaped Charitable Giving Profile Using Register-Based Data," DaCHE discussion papers 2018:1, University of Southern Denmark, Dache - Danish Centre for Health Economics.
    15. Andreoni, James & Payne, A. Abigail, 2011. "Is crowding out due entirely to fundraising? Evidence from a panel of charities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(5), pages 334-343.
    16. Inmaculada Garcia & Carmen Marcuello, 2002. "Family model of contributions to non-profit organizations and labour supply," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(2), pages 259-265.
    17. Timm Bönke & Nima Massarrat-Mashhadi & Christian Sielaff, 2013. "Charitable giving in the German welfare state: fiscal incentives and crowding out," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 154(1), pages 39-58, January.
    18. Sonia Manzoor & John Straub, 2005. "The robustness of Kingma’s crowd-out estimate: Evidence from new data on contributions to public radio," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 123(3), pages 463-476, June.
    19. Eckel, Catherine C. & Grossman, Philip J. & Johnston, Rachel M., 2005. "An experimental test of the crowding out hypothesis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(8), pages 1543-1560, August.
    20. Romano, Richard & Yildirim, Huseyin, 2001. "Why charities announce donations: a positive perspective," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(3), pages 423-447, September.
    21. Shaikh, Salman Ahmed, 2015. "Using Waqf as Social Safety Net & Funding Public Infrastructure," MPRA Paper 68751, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Charity; Crowd out; Donation; Government spending; Public libraries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • Z11 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economics of the Arts and Literature

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jculte:v:42:y:2018:i:4:d:10.1007_s10824-018-9318-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.