The Economics of donation
Type
dissertation project
Start Date
October 15, 2003
End Date
February 18, 2008
Status
completed
Keywords
altruism
donation
fundraising
Description
Switzerland is one of the richest countries in the world, and
therefore it is not surprising that Swiss people donate
generously. Data describing the behavior of donation in
Switzerland are not easy to find. That is the reason why we
designed a questionnaire from a scientific point of view and
collected data of 1'231 households. The households gave
information about their donation behavior and motivations. From a
statistical analysis some interesting results have been obtained.
For example women appear to donate more than men exclusively in
the case of emergency events. Academics give less for those events
than people from other levels of education. Income, age and civil
status are significant factors for the donation levels.
The work also highlights theoretical motivations to donate
independently from the socioeconomic characteristics of the
households. For this purpose utility functions that describe the
behavior of donation and models based upon them are presented. The Warm-glow of giving-Motive and Pure/Impure Altruism are well known examples. The latter represents the market of donation as a public good problem. One model has been transferred to the Swiss taxation system based on data of the survey. The results suggest how revenues from donations could be increased by redistributing
income.
In Experimental Economics utility functions are subject to
manifold tests. In this thesis a number of relevant experiments
are presented. Which experiments and respectively which preference
structure maps best a market of donation is discussed. A self
executed experiment shows that the amount donated is independent
of the number of recipients. In contrast there exists a
correlation between group size and donating: In small groups the
donors gave more than in big groups which is called a Crowding Out
effect. For a better determination of the right utility function
the empirical results from the survey considering the motivations
to donate were also taken into account.
therefore it is not surprising that Swiss people donate
generously. Data describing the behavior of donation in
Switzerland are not easy to find. That is the reason why we
designed a questionnaire from a scientific point of view and
collected data of 1'231 households. The households gave
information about their donation behavior and motivations. From a
statistical analysis some interesting results have been obtained.
For example women appear to donate more than men exclusively in
the case of emergency events. Academics give less for those events
than people from other levels of education. Income, age and civil
status are significant factors for the donation levels.
The work also highlights theoretical motivations to donate
independently from the socioeconomic characteristics of the
households. For this purpose utility functions that describe the
behavior of donation and models based upon them are presented. The Warm-glow of giving-Motive and Pure/Impure Altruism are well known examples. The latter represents the market of donation as a public good problem. One model has been transferred to the Swiss taxation system based on data of the survey. The results suggest how revenues from donations could be increased by redistributing
income.
In Experimental Economics utility functions are subject to
manifold tests. In this thesis a number of relevant experiments
are presented. Which experiments and respectively which preference
structure maps best a market of donation is discussed. A self
executed experiment shows that the amount donated is independent
of the number of recipients. In contrast there exists a
correlation between group size and donating: In small groups the
donors gave more than in big groups which is called a Crowding Out
effect. For a better determination of the right utility function
the empirical results from the survey considering the motivations
to donate were also taken into account.
Leader contributor(s)
Funder
Topic(s)
Donation
Method(s)
Empirial cross-section analysis
Experimental Economics
Range
Institute/School
Range (De)
Institut/School
Eprints ID
29864