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(Un)Informed charitable giving

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  • Krasteva, Silvana
  • Yildirim, Huseyin
Abstract
Evidence suggests little informed giving. To understand this behavior, we examine voluntary provision of a discrete public good with independent private values that can be ascertained at a cost. We find that an individual who considers a smaller contribution is less likely to learn her value, and thus the percentage of informed giving diminishes as the population grows. We also find that a direct grant to the charity exacerbates crowding-out by discouraging information acquisition whereas a matching grant increases donations by encouraging it. We further show that with costly information, a (first-order) stochastic increase in values can decrease donations; and that facilitating private acquisition of information can be a better fund-raising strategy than directly supplying it.

Suggested Citation

  • Krasteva, Silvana & Yildirim, Huseyin, 2013. "(Un)Informed charitable giving," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 14-26.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:106:y:2013:i:c:p:14-26
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2013.06.011
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    3. Paskalev, Zdravko & Yildirim, Huseyin, 2017. "A theory of outsourced fundraising: Why dollars turn into “Pennies for Charity”," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 1-18.
    4. Castillo, Marco & Petrie, Ragan & Wardell, Clarence, 2023. "Barriers to charitable giving," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 224(C).
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    7. Billur Aksoy & Silvana Krasteva, 2020. "When does less information translate into more giving to public goods?," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 23(4), pages 1148-1177, December.
    8. Krasteva, Silvana & Saboury, Piruz, 2021. "Informative fundraising: The signaling value of seed money and matching gifts," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    9. Adena, Maja & Alizade, Jeyhun & Bohner, Frauke & Harke, Julian & Mesters, Fabio, 2019. "Quality certification for nonprofits, charitable giving, and donor's trust: Experimental evidence," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 159, pages 75-100.
    10. Diederich, Johannes & Goeschl, Timo, 2017. "To mitigate or not to mitigate: The price elasticity of pro-environmental behavior," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 209-222.
    11. Karlan, Dean & List, John A., 2020. "How can Bill and Melinda Gates increase other people's donations to fund public goods?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    12. Stefano Barbieri, 2023. "Complementarity and information in collective action," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 75(1), pages 167-206, January.
    13. Johannes Diederich & Timo Goeschl, 2013. "To Give or Not to Give: The Price of Contributing and the Provision of Public Goods," NBER Working Papers 19332, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Butera, Luigi & Houser, Daniel, 2018. "Delegating altruism: Toward an understanding of agency in charitable giving," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 99-109.
    15. Yildirim, Huseyin, 2014. "Andreoni–McGuire algorithm and the limits of warm-glow giving," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 101-107.
    16. Laura E. Grant, 2021. "Does the introduction of ratings reduce giving? Evidence from charities," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(3), pages 978-995, July.
    17. Eric Van Steenburg & Nwamaka A. Anaza & Ahmed Ashhar & Andres Barrios & Ashley R. Deutsch & Meryl P. Gardner & Preeti Priya & Abhijit Roy & Anu Sivaraman & Kimberly A. Taylor, 2022. "The new world of philanthropy: How changing financial behavior, public policies, and COVID‐19 affect nonprofit fundraising and marketing," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 1079-1105, September.
    18. Lange, Andreas & Price, Michael K. & Santore, Rudy, 2017. "Signaling quality through gifts: Implications for the charitable sector," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 48-61.
    19. Jan Schmitz, 2021. "Is Charitable Giving a Zero-Sum Game? The Effect of Competition Between Charities on Giving Behavior," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(10), pages 6333-6349, October.
    20. Penz, R. Frederic & Hörisch, Jacob & Tenner, Isabell, 2022. "Investors in environmental ventures want good money—and a clean conscience: How framing, interest rates, and the environmental impact of crowdlending projects influence funding decisions," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Charitable giving; Value of information; Crowding-out;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H00 - Public Economics - - General - - - General
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

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