Making an impact? The relevance of information on aid effectiveness for charitable giving. A laboratory experiment

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Metzger, Laura; Guenther, Isabel
• 署名单位: Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; ETH Zurich; Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; ETH Zurich
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2018.08.015
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 18-33
• 关键词: Charitable giving; Aid impact; Aid effectiveness; social preferences

摘要

In a laboratory experiment, we analyze individuals' demand for information about a donation's welfare impact, and compare it with demand for information on recipient types and administrative costs. We find the least demand for information about aid impact, indicating that individuals either do not understand, do not trust, or do not care about the specific information we provide. Average donations increase in response to information about the recipient type and decrease in response to information about administrative costs. Information about aid impact does not significantly change average donations: donors who demand information respond positively to high impact projects and negatively to low impact projects, resulting in a zero net effect on donation levels. Our results further show that information has the same effect on donation behavior regardless of whether it is provided for free or at a cost.