This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
  4. April 2009
  5. What Determines Giving to Hurricane Katrina Victims? Experimental Evidence on Racial Group Loyalty

What Determines Giving to Hurricane Katrina Victims? Experimental Evidence on Racial Group Loyalty

  • Christina M. Fong
  • Erzo F. P. Luttmer
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 1, no. 2, April 2009
(pp. 64-87)
Download Full Text PDF
(Complimentary)

Abstract

We investigate the role of racial group loyalty on generosity in a broadly representative sample of the US adult population. We use an audiovisual presentation to manipulate beliefs about the race, income, and worthiness of Hurricane Katrina victims. Respondents then decide how to divide $100 between themselves and Katrina victims. We find no effects of victims' race on giving on average. However, respondents who report feeling close to their racial or ethnic group give substantially more when victims are of the same race, while respondents who do not feel close to their group give substantially less. (JEL D64, J15, Q54)

Citation

Fong, Christina M., and Erzo F. P. Luttmer. 2009. "What Determines Giving to Hurricane Katrina Victims? Experimental Evidence on Racial Group Loyalty." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 1 (2): 64-87. DOI: 10.1257/app.1.2.64

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • D64 Altruism
  • J15 Economics of Minorities and Races; Non-labor Discrimination
  • Q54 Climate; Natural Disasters; Global Warming
There are no comments for this article.
Login to Comment