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Sharing One's Fortune? An Experimental Study on Earned Income and Giving

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  • Mirco Tonin
  • Michael Vlassopoulos

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the relationship between earnings and charitable giving. We set up a real effort experiment, in which subjects enter data in four one-hour occasions and are paid a piece rate. From the second occasion onwards, we randomly assign half of the subjects to a treatment with higher piece rates. At the end we ask subjects whether they want to donate a share of their earnings to a charity of their choice. We find that, despite large differences in earnings due to the different piece rates, subjects receiving the higher piece rate are actually less likely to give, and that givers in the two groups give the same share of their total earnings. Charities receive the same average donation from members of the two groups indicating that subjects in this experiment do not treat charitable giving as a normal good.

Suggested Citation

  • Mirco Tonin & Michael Vlassopoulos, 2013. "Sharing One's Fortune? An Experimental Study on Earned Income and Giving," CESifo Working Paper Series 4475, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_4475
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    Cited by:

    1. Blanco, M & Dalton, P. S., 2019. "Generosity and Wealth: Experimental Evidence from Bogotá Stratification," Documentos de Trabajo 17598, Universidad del Rosario.
    2. Larney, Andrea & Rotella, Amanda & Barclay, Pat, 2019. "Stake size effects in ultimatum game and dictator game offers: A meta-analysis," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 61-72.
    3. David Fielding & Stephen Knowles, 2015. "Can you spare some change for charity? Experimental evidence on verbal cues and loose change effects in a Dictator Game," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 18(4), pages 718-730, December.
    4. Drouvelis, Michalis & Marx, Benjamin M., 2018. "Prosociality spillovers of working with others," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 205-216.
    5. Pedro Rey-Biel & Roman Sheremeta & Neslihan Uler, 2018. "When Income Depends on Performance and Luck: The Effects of Culture and Information on Giving," Research in Experimental Economics, in: Experimental Economics and Culture, volume 20, pages 167-203, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    6. Mirco Tonin & Michael Vlassopoulos, 2015. "Corporate Philanthropy and Productivity: Evidence from an Online Real Effort Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(8), pages 1795-1811, August.
    7. Mercer, Antonio Carlos & Póvoa, Angela Cristiane Santos & Pech, Wesley, 2021. "The effect of luck framing on distributional preferences," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(4), pages 320-329.
    8. Fehr, Dietmar, 2018. "Is increasing inequality harmful? Experimental evidence," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 123-134.
    9. Montano-Campos, Felipe & Perez-Truglia, Ricardo, 2019. "Giving to charity to signal smarts: evidence from a lab experiment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 193-199.
    10. Michalis Drouvelis & Adam Isen & Benjamin M. Marx, 2019. "The Bonus-Income Donation Norm," CESifo Working Paper Series 7961, CESifo.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    charity; earnings; buck; effort; windfall;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • J39 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Other

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