Does the Happiness of Volunteers Change According to Their Income? An Empirical Application across the World

Enabling a volunteer to undertake a task altruistically within the social structure they live in directly or indirectly improves their happiness. However, the donation of valuable resources such as time, skills, and effort by the volunteer, as well as the resulting happiness, may vary based on income and the way of volunteering. From this point of view, in this study, the happiness of volunteers from different income groups was investigated according to the forms of volunteering. For this purpose, data from the World Values Survey (WVS) covering the first (1981-1984), third (1995-1998), fifth (2005-2009), sixth (2010-2014), and seventh (2017-2022) waves are analyzed globally using the ordered logistic method. The analysis revealed that the happiness of low-income volunteers increased when the number of voluntary organizations they actively participated in increased, while high-income volunteers were happier when they regularly participated in such organizations' activities. In various analyses involving different volunteer organizations, it was found that high-income volunteers achieved more happiness by actively providing voluntary services in associations or foundations aimed at increasing social awareness. On the other hand, low-income volunteers achieved more happiness by actively participating in volunteer work in groups formed for mutual assistance. Additionally, it was found that active volunteering in religious associations, foundations, or groups did not significantly contribute to the happiness of high-income volunteers but increased the happiness of volunteers in the low and middle-income groups. The study, unlike the literature, has shown that when considering the form of voluntarism, even high-income individuals benefit from volunteering behavior.