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Hey Look at Me: The Effect of Giving Circles on Giving

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  • Dean Karlan
  • Margaret A. McConnell

Abstract

Theories abound for why individuals give to charity. We conduct a field experiment with donors to a Yale University service club to test the impact of a promise of public recognition on giving. Some may claim that they respond to an offer of public recognition not to improve their social standing, but rather to motivate others to give. To tease apart these two theories, we conduct a laboratory experiment with undergraduates, and find no evidence to support the alternative, altruistic motivation. We conclude that charitable gifts increase in response to the promise of public recognition primarily because of individuals' desire to improve their social image.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 17737.

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Date of creation: Jan 2012
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17737

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Blog mentions

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  1. Egoistic giving
    by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2012-02-01 15:13:00
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Cited by:
  1. Karlan, Dean S. & List, John, 2012. "How Can Bill and Melinda Gates Increase Other People's Donations to Fund Public Goods?," CEPR Discussion Papers 8922, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  2. Atkinson, Anthony B. & Backus, Peter G. & Micklewright, John & Pharoah, Cathy & Schnepf, Sylke V., 2008. "Charitable Giving for Overseas Development: UK Trends over a Quarter Century," IZA Discussion Papers 3872, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  3. Dean Karlan & John A List, 2012. "How Can Bill and Melinda Gates Increase Other People’s Donations to Fund Public Goods?," Working Papers id:4880, eSocialSciences.
  4. Sander Onderstal & Arthur J.C. Schram & Adriaan R. Soetevent, 2011. "Bidding to give in the Field: Door-to-Door Fundraisers had it right from the Start," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 11-070/1, Tinbergen Institute, revised 10 Nov 2011.

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