Does it Pay to Work for Free? Negative Selection and the Wage Returns to Volunteer Experience

Guido Cozzi, Noemi Mantovan and Robert Sauer

No 32, CHILD Working Papers Series from Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA

Abstract: This paper offers the first instrumental variables estimates of the wage returns to volunteer experience. The returns are substantial and differ considerably by gender. The results imply that the unequal valuation of volunteer experience by gender is more important in explaining the gender earnings gap than is the unequal valuation of part-time paid work experience. The results also indicate negative selection into unpaid work. In a simple model of optimal volunteering, negative selection implies that a lower cost of volunteering would produce both an expanded and higher-skilled pool of volunteers, and greater societal benefits from volunteer work.

Keywords: Volunteering; Unpaid Work; Gender Differences; Instrumental Variables; Rainfall; Negative Selection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C26 D64 H41 J16 J31 J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm
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Related works:
Journal Article: Does it Pay to Work for Free? Negative Selection and the Wage Returns to Volunteer Experience (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cca:wchild:32

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