Donations, risk attitudes and time preferences: a study on altruism in primary school children

Silvia Angerer, Daniela Glätzle-Rützler, Philipp Lergetporer and Matthias Sutter

No ECO2014/04, Economics Working Papers from European University Institute

Abstract: We study with a sample of 1,070 primary school children, aged seven to eleven years, how altruism in a donation experiment is related to children’s risk attitudes and intertemporal choices. Examining such a relationship is motivated by theories of reciprocal altruism that provide a cornerstone to understand human social behavior. We find that higher risk tolerance and patience in intertemporal choice increase, in general, the level of donations, albeit the effects are non-linear. We confirm earlier results that altruism increases with age during childhood and that girls are more altruistic than boys. Having older brothers makes subjects less altruistic.

Keywords: Altruism; donations; risk attitudes; intertemporal choices; experiment; children (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D03 D63 D64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Donations, risk attitudes and time preferences: A study on altruism in primary school children (2015)
Working Paper: Donations, risk attitudes and time preferences: A study on altruism in primary school children (2014)
Working Paper: Donations, risk attitudes and time preferences: A study on altruism in primary school children (2014)
Working Paper: Donations, Risk Attitudes and Time Preferences: A Study on Altruism in Primary School Children (2014)
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