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  5. Global Generosity during Disasters & Health Emergencies
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Global Generosity during Disasters & Health Emergencies

Paper Session

Friday, Jan. 6, 2023 12:30 PM - 2:15 PM (CST)

New Orleans Marriott, Bacchus
Hosted By: Association for the Study of Generosity in Economics
  • Chair: Laura Katherine Gee, Tufts University

Disaster Relief, Inc.

Cara Vansteenkiste
,
University of New South Wales
Hao Liang
,
Singapore Management University

Abstract

A long-standing question in economics is why companies donate to charity beyond the potential tax benefits. We investigate the motivations and value implications of corporate philanthropy in a global sample of firms providing relief to disaster-affected communities. We exploit disaster-specific factors in an event-study setting around donation announcements to show that although, on average, donating decreases returns, the strategic benefits of donating around salient, attention-grabbing disasters mitigate this negative effect. To account for the decision to donate, we rely on exogenous variation in the availability of corporate charitable funds due to the timing of the disaster relative to firms’ financial year. We show that donations can enhance returns by increasing customer awareness, firm reputation, sales, and stakeholder support. Our findings highlight the conditions under which the strategic benefits of corporate philanthropy outweigh its agency costs.

Patterns of Generosity Around the Globe and How COVID Impacted Them

Chien-Yu Lai
,
University of Chicago
John List
,
University of Chicago and NBER
Michael Price
,
University of Alabama and NBER

Abstract

We use data from the Gallup World Poll to explore the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on patterns of generosity around the globe. Using data from more than 2 million respondents from nearly 120 countries over a 12 year period, we find a positive relationship between monthly COVID-19 cases and the likelihood a respondent has donated money to a charitable cause in the past 30 days and negative relationship between COVID cases and the likelihood a respondent has volunteered time in the past month. However, the effect of COVID on giving vares over time, across regions of the globe, and across several demographic characteristics - e.g., income, employment status, and religion.

A Randomized Trial of Digital Support for Tuberculosis Treatment in Kenya

Erez Yoeli
,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Abstract

Improving Tuberculosis treatment success is critical for improving the health of individuals with TB, reducing transmission, and lowering treatment costs. We used behavioral science principles to design three digital interventions with different kinds and intensity of support, and tested their impact in a three-year long randomized control trial with 14,799 patients throughout Kenya. All three interventions led to improvements in treatment success relative to a control receiving the standard of care. Improvements were commensurate with intensity of support. The group receiving the most support experienced an improvement of 4.1 percentage points (33.0%; p<.001) in treatment success, a 1.4 percentage point (25.9%, p=.021) reduction in deaths, and a 7.7 percentage point (61.1%; p=.001) reduction in medication non-adherence. Other groups achieved improvements of about half this magnitude on treatment success, but no detectable effect on deaths (we did not measure their effect on non-adherence). Causal forest estimates of individual-level treatment effects suggest that all individuals experienced a statistically significant benefit from our most intensive intervention and that no individual was harmed by any of our interventions.

Aftershocks: How Wars, Epidemics, and Other Natural Disasters Tighten Social Norms

Max Winkler
,
Harvard University

Abstract

I study the impact of exposure to large adverse shocks on people's normative beliefs. Combining data on the occurrences of conflicts, epidemics, and other natural disasters with large-scale survey data covering hundreds of normative beliefs, I make four findings. First, individuals surveyed in the weeks after a shock hits in their vicinity shift their normative beliefs closer to the local modal beliefs, place more importance on norm adherence, and exhibit a greater willingness to sanction norm deviations. Second, the effect is found for normative beliefs across many domains, pointing to a psychological mechanism rather than a strategic response to shocks. Third, shocks can lead to belief polarization if the local modal beliefs differ across groups before a shock hits. Fourth, examining within-country variation in shocks experienced during early lifetime across cohorts, I find that the effect persists.

Discussant(s)
Teresa Harrison
,
Drexel University
Sarah Smith
,
University of Bristol
Rachel Soloveichik
,
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Daniel Hungerman
,
University of Notre Dame
JEL Classifications
  • H4 - Publicly Provided Goods