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The Economics of Altruism – The Old, the Rich, the Female

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  • Voraprapa Nakavachara

Abstract

This study examines whether certain observed characteristics are associated people's altruistic feelings and behaviors. The paper utilizes a National Mental Health Survey that gathered questions about respondents' self-reported altruism along with their demographic, labor force, and income information. The empirical results reveal that (1) older people are more altruistic; (2) higher income people are more altruistic; and (3) women are more altruistic. The results are robust once the potential endogeneity problem of the income variable is eliminated by the use of the instrumental variable estimation method.

Suggested Citation

  • Voraprapa Nakavachara, 2017. "The Economics of Altruism – The Old, the Rich, the Female," PIER Discussion Papers 62, Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:pui:dpaper:62
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    File URL: https://www.pier.or.th/files/dp/pier_dp_062.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Linda Kamas & Anne Preston & Sandy Baum, 2008. "Altruism in individual and joint-giving decisions: What's gender got to do with it?," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(3), pages 23-50.
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    3. Jo Holland & Antonio S Silva & Ruth Mace, 2012. "Lost Letter Measure of Variation in Altruistic Behaviour in 20 Neighbourhoods," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(8), pages 1-4, August.
    4. James Andreoni & Lise Vesterlund, 2001. "Which is the Fair Sex? Gender Differences in Altruism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(1), pages 293-312.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. Mitchell Hoffman, 2011. "Does Higher Income Make You More Altruistic? Evidence from the Holocaust," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(3), pages 876-887, August.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Behavioral Economics; Altruism; Old Age; Gender;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J40 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - General

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