Charitable giving among females and males: an empirical test of the competitive altruism hypothesis

Journal of Bioeconomics - Tập 15 - Trang 251-267 - 2013
Robert Böhm1, Tobias Regner2
1Center for Empirical Research in Economics and Behavioral Sciences (CEREB), University of Erfurt, Erfurt, Germany
2Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena, Germany

Tóm tắt

We conduct a real-effort task experiment where subjects’ performance translates into a donation to a charity. In a within-subjects design we vary the visibility of the donation (no/private/public feedback). Confirming previous studies, we find that subjects’ performance increases, that is, they donate more to charity, when their relative performance is made public. In line with the competitive altruism hypothesis, a biology-based explanation for status-seeking behavior, especially male subjects increase performance in the public setting.

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