IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/nonpfo/v8y2017i3p211-235n1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Increasing the Size of the Pie: The Impact of Crowding on Nonprofit Sector Resources

Author

Listed:
  • Beaton Erynn

    (John Glenn College of Public Affairs, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA)

  • Hwang Hyunseok

    (Department of Sociology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA)

Abstract

The number of nonprofit organizations is rapidly increasing, which has led nonprofit practitioners to complain of funding scarcity, nonprofit scholars to closely study nonprofit competition, and policymakers to consider increasing nonprofit barriers to entry. Underlying each of these perspectives is an assumption of limited financial resources. We empirically examine this assumption using county-level panel data on nonprofit human services organizations from the National Center for Charitable Statistics. Contrary to the limited resources assumption, our fixed-effects models show that increasing nonprofit density, at its current levels, has the effect of increasing sector financial resources in each county. We suggest that these findings prompt a tradeoff for policymakers. A sector with free market entry results in a nonprofit sector with more, smaller nonprofits, but such a sector may have the capacity to serve more people because it has more total sector financial resources. Conversely, a sector with higher barriers to entry would translate to a sector with fewer, larger nonprofits with less overall capacity due to fewer sector financial resources.

Suggested Citation

  • Beaton Erynn & Hwang Hyunseok, 2017. "Increasing the Size of the Pie: The Impact of Crowding on Nonprofit Sector Resources," Nonprofit Policy Forum, De Gruyter, vol. 8(3), pages 211-235, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bpj:nonpfo:v:8:y:2017:i:3:p:211-235:n:1
    DOI: 10.1515/npf-2016-0012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/npf-2016-0012
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/npf-2016-0012?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.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Ledia Guci & Charles Ian Mead & Sharon D. Panek, 2016. "A Research Agenda for Measuring GDP at the County Level," BEA Working Papers 0134, Bureau of Economic Analysis.
    3. Seaman Bruce A. & Wilsker Amanda L. & Young Dennis R., 2014. "Measuring Concentration and Competition in the U.S. Nonprofit Sector: Implications for Research and Public Policy," Nonprofit Policy Forum, De Gruyter, vol. 5(2), pages 1-29, October.
    4. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    5. Alexander von Kotzebue & Berthold U. Wigger, 2010. "Private contributions to collective concerns: modelling donor behaviour," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 34(2), pages 367-387, March.
    6. Richard STEINBERG, 1991. "Does Government Spending Crowd Out Donations?," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(4), pages 591-612, October.
    7. 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.
    8. Harrison Teresa & Thornton Jeremy, 2014. "Too Many Nonprofits? An Empirical Approach to Estimating Trends in Nonprofit Demand Density," Nonprofit Policy Forum, De Gruyter, vol. 5(2), pages 1-17, October.
    9. Christopher Marquis & Gerald F. Davis & Mary Ann Glynn, 2013. "Golfing Alone? Corporations, Elites, and Nonprofit Growth in 100 American Communities," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 39-57, February.
    10. Yoshiho Matsunaga & Naoto Yamauchi, 2004. "Is the Government Failure Theory Still Relevant? A panel analysis using US state level data," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(2), pages 227-263, June.
    11. Weisbrod, Burton A. & Dominguez, Nestor D., 1986. "Demand for collective goods in private nonprofit markets: Can fundraising expenditures help overcome free-rider behavior?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 83-96, June.
    12. Harrison Teresa D. & Laincz Christopher A, 2008. "Entry and Exit in the Nonprofit Sector," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-42, July.
    13. Michele Hoyman & Jamie McCall & Laurie Paarlberg & John Brennan, 2016. "Considering the Role of Social Capital for Economic Development Outcomes in U.S. Counties," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 30(4), pages 342-357, November.
    14. Carmen Marcuello, 1998. "Determinants of the Non-profit Sector Size: An Empirical Analysis in Spain," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(2), pages 175-192, June.
    15. Peter Kennedy, 2003. "A Guide to Econometrics, 5th Edition," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 5, volume 1, number 026261183x, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Krasteva, Silvana & Yildirim, Huseyin, 2016. "Information, competition, and the quality of charities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 64-77.
    2. James Andreoni & A Abigail Payne, 2001. "Government Grants to Private Charities: Do They Crowd-Out Giving or Fundraising?," Public Economics 0111001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Behrens, Christoph & Emrich, Eike & Hämmerle, Martin & Pierdzioch, Christian, 2017. "Match quality, crowding out, and crowding in: Empirical evidence for German sports clubs," Working Papers of the European Institute for Socioeconomics 21, European Institute for Socioeconomics (EIS), Saarbrücken.
    4. Anwar Shah & Karim Khan & Muhammad Tariq Majeed, 2015. "The Effects of Informational Framing on Charitable Pledges - Experimental Evidence from a Fund Raising Campaign," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 54(1), pages 35-54.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. Carmen Marcuello & Vicente Salas, 2001. "Nonprofit Organizations, Monopolistic Competition, and Private Donations: Evidence from Spain," Public Finance Review, , vol. 29(3), pages 183-207, May.
    8. 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.
    9. Gallier, Carlo & Reif, Christiane & Römer, Daniel, 2014. "Consistent or balanced? On the dynamics of voluntary contributions," ZEW Discussion Papers 14-060, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    10. Thomas More Smith, 2007. "The Impact Of Government Funding On Private Contributions To Nonprofit Performing Arts Organizations," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 78(1), pages 137-160, March.
    11. Lata Gangadharan & Philip J. Grossman & Kristy Jones, 2014. "Deconstructing Giving: Donor Types and How They Give," Monash Economics Working Papers 53-14, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    12. Gallier, Carlo & Reif, Christiane & Römer, Daniel, 2017. "Repeated pro-social behavior in the presence of economic interventions," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 18-28.
    13. Mengyuan Zhou, 2022. "Does the Source of Inheritance Matter in Bequest Attitudes? Evidence from Japan," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 43(4), pages 867-887, December.
    14. Mengyuan Zhou, 2019. "The Effect of the Source of Inheritance on Bequest Attitudes: Evidence from Japan," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2019-018, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    15. Paskalev, Zdravko & Yildirim, Huseyin, 2017. "A theory of outsourced fundraising: Why dollars turn into “Pennies for Charity”," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 1-18.
    16. Keval Amin & Erica Harris, 2022. "The Effect of Investor Sentiment on Nonprofit Donations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 175(2), pages 427-450, January.
    17. Arbel, Yuval & Bar-El, Ronen & Schwarz, Mordechai E. & Tobol, Yossef, 2019. "To What Do People Contribute? Ongoing Operations vs. Sustainable Supplies," IZA Discussion Papers 12180, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Korenok, Oleg & Millner, Edward L. & Razzolini, Laura, 2013. "Impure altruism in dictators' giving," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 1-8.
    19. Ekaterina Melnik & Jean-Benoît Zimmermann, 2015. "The We and the I: The Logic of Voluntary Associations," Working Papers halshs-01109609, HAL.
    20. Adina Bărbulescu Robinson & Kapil R. Tuli & Ajay K. Kohli, 2015. "Does Brand Licensing Increase a Licensor's Shareholder Value?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(6), pages 1436-1455, June.

    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:bpj:nonpfo:v:8:y:2017:i:3:p:211-235:n:1. 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: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.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.