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Willingness to volunteer among remote workers is insensitive to the team size

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  • Hillenbrand, Adrian
  • Werner, Tobias
  • Winter, Fabian

Abstract

Volunteering is a widespread allocation mechanism in the workplace. It emerges naturally in software development or the generation of online knowledge platforms. Using a field experiment with more than 2000 workers, we study the effect of team size on volunteering in an online labor market. In contrast to our theoretical predictions and previous research, we find no effect of team size on volunteering although workers react to free riding incentives. We replicate the results and provide further robustness checks. Eliciting workers' beliefs about their co-workers' volunteering reveals conditional volunteering as the primary driver of our results.

Suggested Citation

  • Hillenbrand, Adrian & Werner, Tobias & Winter, Fabian, 2022. "Willingness to volunteer among remote workers is insensitive to the team size," ZEW Discussion Papers 22-050, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:22050
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    3. Campos-Mercade, Pol, 2021. "The volunteer’s dilemma explains the bystander effect," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 646-661.
    4. David Danz & Lise Vesterlund & Alistair J. Wilson, 2020. "Belief Elicitation: Limiting Truth Telling with Information on Incentives," CESifo Working Paper Series 8048, CESifo.
    5. Hillenbrand, Adrian & Winter, Fabian, 2018. "Volunteering under population uncertainty," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 65-81.
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    8. Linda Babcock & Maria P. Recalde & Lise Vesterlund & Laurie Weingart, 2017. "Gender Differences in Accepting and Receiving Requests for Tasks with Low Promotability," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(3), pages 714-747, March.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    volunteering; volunteer's dilemma; remote work; team size;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • J4 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets

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