Relational altruism and giving in social groups

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Scharf, Kimberley; Smith, Sarah
• 署名单位: University of Warwick; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; University of Bristol
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2016.06.001
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 1-10
• 关键词: Online giving; Fundraising; Social groups; Donations; charity; altruism

摘要

Much fundraising is done by individuals within existing social groups. Exploiting a unique dataset, we demonstrate (i) a positive relationship between social group size and the number of donations; (ii) a negative relationship between group size and the size of individual donations; (iii) no clear relationship between group size and the total amount raised. Free riding with respect to the activity being funded cannot explain the relationship between group size and donation size, since the number of social group members is only a subset of total contributors. Instead, the findings are consistent with the notion that giving in social groups is motivated by relational altruism. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.