Blood Donations and Incentives: Evidence from a Field Experiment

Lorenz Götte () and Alois Stutzer
Additional contact information
Lorenz Götte: National University of Singapore
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Lorenz Goette

No 3580, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: There is a longstanding concern that material incentives might undermine prosocial motivation, leading to a decrease in blood donations rather than an increase. This paper provides an empirical test of how material incentives affect blood donations in a large-scale field experiment spanning three months and involving more than 10,000 previous donors. We examine two types of incentive: a lottery ticket and a free cholesterol test. Lottery tickets significantly increase donations, in particular among less motivated donors. The cholesterol test leads to no discernable impact on usable blood donations. If anything, it creates a small negative selection effect in terms of donations that must be discarded.

Keywords: material incentives; blood donations; prosocial behavior; field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D64 H41 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2008-07
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (42)

Published - revised version published in: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2020, 170, 52-74

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp3580.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Blood donations and incentives: Evidence from a field experiment (2020)
Working Paper: Blood Donations and Incentives: Evidence from a Field Experiment (2019)
Working Paper: Blood Donations and Incentives: Evidence from a Field Experiment (2019)
Working Paper: Blood donations and incentives: evidence from a field experiment (2008)
Working Paper: Blood donations and incentives: evidence from a field experiment (2008)
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