IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jpemic/doi10.1086-721805.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nonprofits in Good Times and Bad Times

Author

Listed:
  • Christine L. Exley
  • Nils H. Lehr
  • Stephen J. Terry

Abstract

Need fluctuates over the business cycle. We conduct a survey revealing a desire for nonprofit activities to countercyclically expand during downturns. We then demonstrate, using comprehensive US nonprofit data drawn from millions of tax returns, that the public’s hopes are disappointed. Nonprofit expenditure, revenue, and balance sheets fluctuate procyclically: contracting during national and local downturns. This finding is evident even for a narrow group of nonprofits that the public most wishes would expand during downturns, for example, those providing critical needs such as food or housing. Our new facts contribute to the charitable giving, nonprofit, and business cycle literatures.

Suggested Citation

  • Christine L. Exley & Nils H. Lehr & Stephen J. Terry, 2023. "Nonprofits in Good Times and Bad Times," Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 42-79.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jpemic:doi:10.1086/721805
    DOI: 10.1086/721805
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/721805
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/721805
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/721805?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 search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    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:ucp:jpemic:doi:10.1086/721805. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JPEMI .

    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.