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 8020, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

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)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2014-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp, nep-neu, nep-soc and nep-upt
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Published - published in: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2015, 115, 67-74

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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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