Working for Nothing: The Supply of Volunteer Labor

Richard Freeman

Journal of Labor Economics, 1997, vol. 15, issue 1, S140-66

Abstract: Volunteer activity is work performed without monetary recompense. This article shows that volunteering is a sizeable economic activity in the United States, that volunteers have high skills and opportunity costs of time, that standard labor supply explanations of volunteering account for only a minor part of volunteer behavior, and that many volunteer only when requested to do so. This suggests that volunteering is a 'conscience good or activity'--something that people feel morally obligated to do when asked but which they would just as soon let someone else do. Copyright 1997 by University of Chicago Press.

Date: 1997
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Working Paper: Working for Nothing: The Supply of Volunteer Labor (1997)
Working Paper: Working for Nothing: The Supply of Volunteer Labor (1996)
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