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The shape of warm glow: Field experimental evidence from a fundraiser

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  • Carpenter, Jeffrey

Abstract

Theory commonly posits agents who care both for the level of public good provision and the extent to which they personally contribute to the cause. Simply put, agents feel “warm glow” from the donations they make. I discuss a lottery fundraiser conducted in the field devised to exogenously vary the incentive to give and identify the structural parameters of warm glow. Estimates suggest that for participants claiming warm glow as their primary motivation, its shape is increasing and concave. Nevertheless, welfare analysis suggests that warm glow is unlikely to be the only important factor in the decision to give.

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  • Carpenter, Jeffrey, 2021. "The shape of warm glow: Field experimental evidence from a fundraiser," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 555-574.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:191:y:2021:i:c:p:555-574
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2021.09.020
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    Cited by:

    1. Ben Grodeck & Philipp Schoenegger, 2022. "Demanding the Morally Demanding: Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Moral Arguments and Moral Demandingness on Charitable Giving," Monash Economics Working Papers 2022-03, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    2. Endre Kildal Iversen & Kristine Grimsrud & Yohei Mitani & Henrik Lindhjem, 2022. "Altruist Talk May (also) Be Cheap: Revealed Versus Stated Altruism as a Predictor in Stated Preference Studies," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 83(3), pages 681-708, November.
    3. Luxford, Anthony, 2022. "Exchange Asymmetry and Charitable Objects," Warwick-Monash Economics Student Papers 34, Warwick Monash Economics Student Papers.
    4. Lata Gangadharan & Philip J. Grossman & Nina Xue, 2022. "Stepping Stone: Identifying self-image concerns from motivated beliefs: Does it matter how and whom you ask?," Monash Economics Working Papers 2022-05, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    5. Grodeck, Ben & Grossman, Philip J., 2024. "Instantaneous positive reinforcement does not increase donations: Evidence from online experiments," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 446-460.
    6. Lata Gangadharan & Philip J. Grossman & Nina Xue, 2021. "Identifying self-image concerns from motivated beliefs: Does it matter how and whom you ask?," Monash Economics Working Papers 2021-17, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    7. Carpenter, Jeffrey P. & Lyford, Alex & Zhang, Mingfang, 2023. "A Behaviorally-Validated Warm Glow Questionnaire," IZA Discussion Papers 16205, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Zachary Halberstam & James R. Hines Jr., 2023. "Quality-Aware Tax Incentives for Charitable Contributions," CESifo Working Paper Series 10250, CESifo.
    9. David Fielding & Stephen Knowles & Ronald Peeters, 2022. "In search of competitive givers," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 88(4), pages 1517-1548, April.
    10. Gangadharan, Lata & Grossman, Philip J. & Xue, Nina, 2023. "Using willingness to pay to measure the strength of altruistic motives," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    11. Samwick, Andrew A. & Wang, Sophie, 2024. "Corporate social responsibility and voting over public goods," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    12. Grodeck, Ben & Schoenegger, Philipp, 2023. "Demanding the morally demanding: Experimental evidence on the effects of moral arguments and moral demandingness on charitable giving," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 103(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public good; Altruism; Warm glow; Structural estimate; Philanthropy; Pari-mutuel lottery; Fundraising; Field experiment; Survey validation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments

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