Do Women Behave Less or More Prosocially than Men?

Stephan Meier
Additional contact information
Stephan Meier: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Massachusetts

Public Finance Review, 2007, vol. 35, issue 2, 215-232

Abstract: The behavior of others and the price of giving are two important determinants of contributions to public goods. Using two field experiments, this article tests whether men and women differ in their reactions to either a change in the average behavior of the group or a change in the price of giving, that is, a contribution-matching mechanism. The results of the field experiments show that men and women do not differ in their reactions to a matching mechanism. However, substantial gender differences can be detected with respect to social comparison. Men tend to align their behavior with the average behavior of the group, whereas women seem to be insensitive to information about group behavior.

Keywords: field experiment; gender; charitable giving; matching mechanism; social comparison (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1091142106291488 (text/html)

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:sae:pubfin:v:35:y:2007:i:2:p:215-232

DOI: 10.1177/1091142106291488

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Public Finance Review
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().