Social Capital, the State’s Structural Intervention and Donors’ Choice Among Charitable Causes: Evidence from China

Xiaochen Gong () and Shihua Ye ()
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Xiaochen Gong: Nankai University
Shihua Ye: Nankai University

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2021, vol. 155, issue 2, No 11, 647-674

Abstract: Abstract The impact of social capital on individuals’ giving behavior has been widely studied, however, most of the existing literature considers charitable giving to be one form of prosocial behavior without further exploring donations to various charitable causes and fails to capture the shaping role of the state on individuals’ giving preferences. We draw on social capital literature and deploy the 2012 wave of the Chinese General Social Survey to examine to what extent the key social capital correlates, including social networks, norms of generalized reciprocity and trust affect individuals’ giving preferences and the amount given to six specific causes. Results indicate that the effect of social network on giving varies across causes greatly. Attending religious group has the highest explanatory power of giving to Religious cause. Being any associational membership are likely to give to Poverty cause, and individuals holding higher institutional trust give more , the charitable cause prioritized by the state’s political agenda and where donation is predominantly channeled through the state. Norm of generalized reciprocity is an important predictor of the decision to give to Neighborhood. Except for individuals attending community-based association donate higher amounts, others are relatively less likely to donate to the domain of Environmental issues, the newly emerged causes whereas still suppressed by the state. This study contributes a better understanding that individuals’ giving preferences are not only driven by social capital correlates, but shaped by the state’ structural intervention in various charitable domains, which also sheds lights on future studies that explore giving behaviors in other authoritarian regimes.

Keywords: Charitable giving; Individuals’ preference to give; Charitable causes; Social capital; Structural intervention by the state (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1007/s11205-021-02609-7

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