Directed giving enhances voluntary giving to government

Sherry Li (), Catherine Eckel, Philip Grossman and Tara Larson Brown

Economics Letters, 2015, vol. 133, issue C, 51-54

Abstract: Giving to private charities is commonplace, and the chance to direct one’s gift is a standard fundraising strategy. But voluntary donations to government organizations are less widely known, and the impact of the opportunity to direct a gift is unexplored. We investigate the effect of directed giving on voluntary contributions to government organizations using a “real donation” lab experiment. We compare giving to the US federal general revenue fund with directed giving to particular government organizations. Directed giving more than doubles both the likelihood of giving and the size of contributions, indicating that individuals are responsive to the opportunity to direct their gifts in the government context. Our results suggest that the revenue-raising potential of directed voluntary gifts to government may be underutilized.

Keywords: Directed giving; Voluntary giving to government; Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C9 D64 H2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:133:y:2015:i:c:p:51-54

DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2015.05.008

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