On the Norms of Charitable Giving in Islam: A Field Experiment

Fatima Lambarraa Lehnhardt and Gerhard Riener

No 126795, 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil from International Association of Agricultural Economists

Abstract: Charitable giving is one of the major obligations Islam and a strong Muslim norm endorses giving to the needy, but discourages public displays of giving. This norm is puzzling in light of previous evidence, suggesting that making donations public often increases giving. We report the results two field experiments with 534 and 186 participants at Moroccan educational institutions (among them two religious schools) to assess the effects this moral prescription on actual giving levels in anonymous and public settings. Subjects who participated in a paid study were given the option to donate from their payment to a local orphanage, under treatments that varied the publicity of the donation and the salience of Islamic values. In the salient Islamic treatment, anonymity of donations significantly increased donation incidence from 59% to 77% percent as well as average donations for religious subjects from 8.90 to 13.00 Dh. This findings stand in stark contrast to most previous findings in the charitable giving literature and suggest to rethink fundraising strategies in Muslim populations.

Keywords: Institutional; and; Behavioral; Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40
Date: 2012
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ara, nep-cwa, nep-evo, nep-exp and nep-soc
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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Working Paper: On the Norms of Charitable Giving in Islam: A Field Experiment (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:iaae12:126795

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.126795

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