DP10051 Relational Warm Glow and Giving in Social Groups
Author(s): | Kimberley Scharf, Sarah Smith |
Publication Date: | June 2014 |
Keyword(s): | charity, donations, fundraising, online giving, social groups, warm glow |
JEL(s): | D64, H31, Z1 |
Programme Areas: | Public Economics |
Link to this Page: | cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=10051 |
We study charitable giving within social groups. Exploiting a unique dataset, we establish three key relationships between social group size and fundraising outcomes: (i) a positive relationship between group size and the total number of donations; (ii) a negative relationship between group size and the amount given by each donor; (iii) no relationship between group size and the total amount raised by the fundraiser. We rule out classic free-riding to explain these relationships since the number of social group members is only a subset of total contributors. Instead, the findings are consistent with the notion that giving in social groups is motivated by ?relational? warm glow.