Authors
Stefano DellaVigna, John A List, Ulrike Malmendier
Publication date
2012/2
Journal
Quarterly Journal of Economics
Volume
127
Pages
1-56
Publisher
Oxford Press
Description
Every year, 90% of Americans give money to charities. Is such generosity necessarily welfare enhancing for the giver? We present a theoretical framework that distinguishes two types of motivation: individuals like to give, for example, due to altruism or warm glow, and individuals would rather not give but dislike saying no, for example, due to social pressure. We design a door-to-door fund-raiser in which some households are informed about the exact time of solicitation with a flyer on their doorknobs. Thus, they can seek or avoid the fund-raiser. We find that the flyer reduces the share of households opening the door by 9% to 25% and, if the flyer allows checking a Do Not Disturb box, reduces giving by 28% to 42%. The latter decrease is concentrated among donations smaller than $ 10. These findings suggest that social pressure is an important determinant of door-to-door giving. Combining data from this and …
Total citations
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Scholar articles
S DellaVigna, JA List, U Malmendier - The quarterly journal of economics, 2012