Using willingness to pay to measure the strength of altruistic motives

Lata Gangadharan (), Philip Grossman and Nina Xue

Economics Letters, 2023, vol. 226, issue C

Abstract: We introduce a novel experimental procedure to measure altruistic giving along a spectrum, from warm glow to pure altruism, by eliciting willingness to pay to increase the likelihood that a donation is received by a recipient. Whereas previous methods identify pure warm-glow motives, our approach directly measures altruistic preferences and is validated by a survey measure developed by Carpenter (2021). Participants who identify in the survey as altruistic givers are more likely to pay to increase the probability that the donation is implemented and pay more on average than those who identified as mainly motivated by warm glow.

Keywords: Warm glow; Altruism; Donation; Charitable giving; Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C9 D9 H4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Working Paper: Using willingness to pay to measure the strength of altruistic motives (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:226:y:2023:i:c:s0165176523000988

DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2023.111073

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