Why Do People Give? Testing Pure and Impure Altruism
American Economic Review
vol. 107,
no. 11, November 2017
(pp. 3617-33)
(Complimentary)
Abstract
Researchers measure crowd-out around one level of charity output to identify whether giving is motivated by altruism and/or warm-glow. However, crowd-out depends on output, implying first that the power to reject pure altruism varies, and second that a single measurement of incomplete crowd-out can be rationalized by many different preferences. By instead measuring crowd-out at different output levels, we allow both for identification and for a novel and direct test of impure altruism. Using a new experimental design, we present the first empirical evidence that, consistent with impure altruism, crowd-out decreases with output.Citation
Ottoni-Wilhelm, Mark, Lise Vesterlund, and Huan Xie. 2017. "Why Do People Give? Testing Pure and Impure Altruism." American Economic Review, 107 (11): 3617-33. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20141222Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D64 Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
- L31 Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship