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

Silvia Angerer (silvia.angerer@uibk.ac.at), Daniela Glätzle-Rützler, Philipp Lergetporer and Matthias Sutter

Working Papers from Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck

Abstract: We study in 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 for understanding 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)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2014-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp, nep-soc, nep-upt and nep-ure
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https://www2.uibk.ac.at/downloads/c4041030/wpaper/2014-21.pdf (application/pdf)

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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