Consumer demand for charitable purchases: Evidence from a field experiment on Girl Scout Cookie sales

Mark Owens, Adam D. Rennhoff and Charles L. Baum

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2018, vol. 152, issue C, 47-63

Abstract: We conduct a field experiment on Girl Scout Cookie sales at retail locations to explore the decisions to make charity-linked (impure public good) purchases and charitable donations (pure public good). We collect detailed sales data in Rutherford County, Tennessee over a seven-year time period and conduct a field experiment that randomly assigns specific cookie booths to receive a charitable bonus contribution for purchases of the impure or pure public good. The bonuses take several forms, which potentially affect warm-glow utility from a purchase, while holding the purchase price and utility from consumption constant. Matching donations are not only effective for increasing donations to charity (pure public good) but also generate spillovers for increasing cookie sales for consumption (impure public good). Charitable bonuses on individual varieties of cookies increase sales of those varieties. In our data, consumers are more sensitive to changes in the relative cost of pure donations to charity than they are to changes in the relative cost of charity associated with a cookie purchase.

Keywords: Field experiment; Charity; Fund raising; Girl Scout Cookies; Impure public good; Pure public good (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D64 L30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:152:y:2018:i:c:p:47-63

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2018.06.002

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