IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/csa/wpaper/2025-04.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Charitable Giving in Wartime: Evidence from Ukraine’s War Fundraising

Author

Listed:
  • Margaryta Klymak
  • Andrew Kosenko
  • Oleg Korenok
  • Dariia Mykhailyshyna
  • Kathryn Vasilaky

Abstract

We analyze how military events, casualties, and media coverage influence same-day donations to a major Ukrainian nonprofit supporting the military during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In a unique setting, we exploit random variation in attacks on civilians across time to estimate that one additional civilian fatality causes between $4,860 and $6,992 in same-day donations, and leads to at least $15,550 in cumulative donations. Disentangling the effects of events and media coverage, we estimate that a 1% increase in media mentions of military activity leads to a $2,584 increase in same day donations and an $8,121 increase in cumulative donations.

Suggested Citation

  • Margaryta Klymak & Andrew Kosenko & Oleg Korenok & Dariia Mykhailyshyna & Kathryn Vasilaky, 2025. "Charitable Giving in Wartime: Evidence from Ukraine’s War Fundraising," CSAE Working Paper Series 2025-04, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    • Handle: RePEc:csa:wpaper:2025-04
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:3b318155-eaa7-4d3d-90a8-7691e59d6942
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Philip H. Brown & Jessica H. Minty, 2008. "Media Coverage and Charitable Giving after the 2004 Tsunami," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 75(1), pages 9-25, July.
    2. Michal Bauer & Christopher Blattman & Julie Chytilová & Joseph Henrich & Edward Miguel & Tamar Mitts, 2016. "Can War Foster Cooperation?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 30(3), pages 249-274, Summer.
    3. Palfrey, Thomas R. & Rosenthal, Howard, 1984. "Participation and the provision of discrete public goods: a strategic analysis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 171-193, July.
    4. Victor Chernozhukov & Denis Chetverikov & Mert Demirer & Esther Duflo & Christian Hansen & Whitney Newey & James Robins, 2018. "Double/debiased machine learning for treatment and structural parameters," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 21(1), pages 1-68, February.
    5. Michael J. Gilligan & Benjamin J. Pasquale & Cyrus Samii, 2014. "Civil War and Social Cohesion: Lab‐in‐the‐Field Evidence from Nepal," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 58(3), pages 604-619, July.
    6. Black, Nicole & De Gruyter, Elaine & Petrie, Dennis & Smith, Sarah, 2021. "Altruism born of suffering? The impact of an adverse health shock on pro-social behaviour," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 902-915.
    7. Adena, Maja & Harke, Julian, 2022. "COVID-19 and pro-sociality: How do donors respond to local pandemic severity, increased salience, and media coverage?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 25(3), pages 824-844.
    8. Philip H. Brown & Jessica H. Minty, 2008. "Media Coverage and Charitable Giving after the 2004 Tsunami," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 75(1), pages 9-25, July.
    9. Federica Alberti & César Mantilla, 2024. "Correction to: A mechanism requesting prices and quantities may increase the provision of heterogeneous public goods," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 27(1), pages 271-271, March.
    10. Harbaugh, William T, 1998. "The Prestige Motive for Making Charitable Transfers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(2), pages 277-282, May.
    11. Federica Alberti & César Mantilla, 2024. "A mechanism requesting prices and quantities may increase the provision of heterogeneous public goods," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 27(1), pages 244-270, March.
    12. Rajshri Jayaraman & Michael Kaiser & Marrit Teirlinck, 2023. "Charitable donations to natural disasters: evidence from an online platform," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 75(4), pages 902-922.
    13. Van Essen, Matthew & Walker, Mark, 2017. "A simple market-like allocation mechanism for public goods," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 6-19.
    14. Tatyana Deryugina & Benjamin M. Marx, 2021. "Is the Supply of Charitable Donations Fixed? Evidence from Deadly Tornadoes," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 3(3), pages 383-398, September.
    15. Thomas Eisensee & David Strömberg, 2007. "News Droughts, News Floods, and U. S. Disaster Relief," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(2), pages 693-728.
    16. Bergstrom, Theodore & Blume, Lawrence & Varian, Hal, 1986. "On the private provision of public goods," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 25-49, February.
    17. Maarten J. Voors & Eleonora E. M. Nillesen & Philip Verwimp & Erwin H. Bulte & Robert Lensink & Daan P. Van Soest, 2012. "Violent Conflict and Behavior: A Field Experiment in Burundi," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(2), pages 941-964, April.
    18. Mark Bagnoli & Barton L. Lipman, 1989. "Provision of Public Goods: Fully Implementing the Core through Private Contributions," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 56(4), pages 583-601.
    19. 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.
    20. 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.
    21. Claude Berrebi & Hanan Yonah, 2016. "Terrorism and philanthropy: the effect of terror attacks on the scope of giving by individuals and households," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 169(3), pages 171-194, December.
    22. Echazu, Luciana & Nocetti, Diego, 2015. "Charitable giving: Altruism has no limits," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 46-53.
    23. Philip H. Brown & Jessica H. Minty, 2008. "Media Coverage and Charitable Giving after the 2004 Tsunami," Southern Economic Journal, Southern Economic Association, vol. 75(1), pages 9-25, July.
    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. Echazu, Luciana & Nocetti, Diego, 2015. "Charitable giving: Altruism has no limits," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 46-53.
    2. Romano, Richard & Yildirim, Huseyin, 2001. "Why charities announce donations: a positive perspective," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(3), pages 423-447, September.
    3. Amihai Glazer, 2014. "The Profit-maximizing Non-profit," Working Papers 131404, University of California-Irvine, Department of Economics.
    4. Anya Samek & Roman M. Sheremeta, 2017. "Selective Recognition: How to Recognize Donors to Increase Charitable Giving," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(3), pages 1489-1496, July.
    5. Stefano Barbieri & David A. Malueg, 2014. "Increasing Fundraising Success by Decreasing Donor Choice," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 16(3), pages 372-400, June.
    6. Etilé, Fabrice & Teyssier, Sabrina, 2013. "Corporate social responsibility and the economics of consumer social responsibility," Review of Agricultural and Environmental Studies - Revue d'Etudes en Agriculture et Environnement (RAEStud), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), vol. 94(2).
    7. Paul Pecorino, 2015. "Olson’s Logic of Collective Action at fifty," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 162(3), pages 243-262, March.
    8. Michela Chessa & Patrick Loiseau, 2024. "Enhancing voluntary contributions in a public goods economy via a minimum individual contribution level," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 201(1), pages 237-261, October.
    9. John Morgan & Justin Tumlinson, 2019. "Corporate Provision of Public Goods," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(10), pages 4489-4504, October.
    10. Esteban Jaimovich, 2024. "The Intensive Margin of Altruism: Impact of Covid-19 on Charitable Giving in England and Wales," Working Papers 297, Red Nacional de Investigadores en Economía (RedNIE).
    11. ChristianR. Jaramillo H., 2005. "The Role Of Networks In Collective Action With Costly Communication," Documentos CEDE 3625, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    12. Krasteva, Silvana & Yildirim, Huseyin, 2013. "(Un)Informed charitable giving," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 14-26.
    13. Cornelli, Francesca & Buraschi, Andrea, 2002. "Donations," CEPR Discussion Papers 3488, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Mayo, John W. & Tinsley, Catherine H., 2009. "Warm glow and charitable giving: Why the wealthy do not give more to charity?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 490-499, June.
    15. Jingping Li & Yohanes E. Riyanto, 2017. "Category Reporting In Charitable Giving: An Experimental Analysis," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(1), pages 397-408, January.
    16. Fraser, Clive D., 1996. "On the provision of excludable public goods," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 111-130, April.
    17. Mark Bagnoli & Susan G. Watts, 2003. "Selling to Socially Responsible Consumers: Competition and The Private Provision of Public Goods," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(3), pages 419-445, September.
    18. Clive D. Fraser, 2022. "Faith? Hope? Charity? Religion explains giving when warm glow and impure altruism do not," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 90(5), pages 500-523, September.
    19. Xiaoquan (Michael) Zhang & Feng Zhu, 2011. "Group Size and Incentives to Contribute: A Natural Experiment at Chinese Wikipedia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(4), pages 1601-1615, June.
    20. Alan Krause, "undated". "Taxing and Subsidising Charitable Contributions," Discussion Papers 09/23, Department of Economics, University of York.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Charitable giving; conflict; public goods;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:csa:wpaper:2025-04. 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: Julia Coffey (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/csaoxuk.html .

    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.