Do people avoid opportunities to donate? A natural field experiment on recycling and charitable giving

Mikael Knutsson, Peter Martinsson and Conny Wollbrant
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Mikael Knutsson: Dept of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Postal: P.O.Box , SE 40530 GÖTEBORG, Sweden

No 542, Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: We use a natural field experiment to investigate the hypothesis that generosity is partly involuntary, by examining whether individuals tend to avoid opportunities to act generously. In Sweden, new recycling machines for bottles and cans with an option of donating the returned deposit to charity were gradually introduced in one of the largest store chains. We find a substantial decline in recycling the month these new machines were introduced and a further decline in the following months. These results indicate that individuals avoid opportunities to act generously and corroborate findings from both lab and field studies supporting the claim that generous behavior is partly involuntary

Keywords: Generosity; Donations; Natural field experiment; Avoidance behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D01 D03 D64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 18 pages
Date: 2012-09-25
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-evo, nep-exp, nep-res and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Published as Knutsson, Mikael, Peter Martinsson and Conny Wollbrant, 'Do people avoid opportunities to donate? A natural field experiment on recycling and charitable giving' in Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2013, pages 71-77.

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