Are politicians more generous? Evidence from charitable giving

Rune J. Sørensen

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2024, vol. 227, issue C

Abstract: This paper analyzes the relationship between charitable giving and political candidacy. It uses individual-level Norwegian register data, which is combined with data on the universe of candidates running for local elections (2003–2021). These data include information on tax-deductible donations to approved organizations. Existing and new evidence suggest these gifts are a valid marker of pro-social preferences, with charitable contributors also displaying a positive correlation with competence. The average politician is more generous than the general population both before, during, and after their election to public office. An event study indicates that while contributions remain predominantly stable; they increase modestly when candidates are standing for election and decrease afterward.

Keywords: Political selection; Charitable giving; Norway (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268124003561
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:227:y:2024:i:c:s0167268124003561

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2024.106742

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization is currently edited by Houser, D. and Puzzello, D.

More articles in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().