This thesis explores three topics in the study of charities and charitable giving. The first chapter studies a classic question in public economics which deals with how charities react to government grants. In recent years this question of understanding crowd-out from the charity's perspective has been extended by numerous authors. This chapter is an extension of this work by using the framework from Andreoni, Payne, and Smith (2014) which studied the impact of a specific granting program in the UK. We use a grant program for charities from a Canadian provincial government agency to explore the extent to which these grants crowd out revenue from other sources. We are able to explore more than 15,000 applications by charities for funding over a 10-year period and have constructed a rich data set that captures information about the application and the revenues and expenses of the charity. We demonstrate that the overall revenues of the charity increases approximately 20% and that the effect of the grant extends several years. We also find that the grant raises revenue nearly dollar-for-dollar for small charities and by more than dollar-for-dollar for medium and large charities. The second chapter further explores how charities operate by studying how managers of charities influence the charity's finances. Using a novel dataset of Canadian charities that links the manager of a charity to the charity's financial data I employ a multi-leveled fixed effects model to estimate the effect the manager of a charity has on the charity's financial outcomes. I find that a one standard deviation increase in manager quality leads to a 0.516 standard deviation increase in total revenue, which amounts to over $500,000, with similar magnitudes for other measures of revenue and expenditures. I then use characteristics of the manager such as gender and marital status to find which characteristics are more prevalent in managers with higher estimated ability. Finally, I present evidence of positive match effects between managers and charities suggesting that good managers are assigned to good charities, and that the effect of a manager can persist even after the manager leaves the charity. Finally in the third chapter we explore the extent to which donation decisions are influenced by government policies. Specifically we study the extent to which the salience of a tax-induced incentive for charitable giving influences donors behaviour. Previous academic work has focused on estimating the price elasticity of giving and differences between permanent and transitory effects of changes in the price. This paper focuses on the timing and salience of tax incentives for giving. The Quebec provincial government responded to the January 12, 2010 Haiti Earthquake by permitting donations for the relief effort to be reported on the 2009 tax return. Residents in the rest of Canada reported their donations for Haiti relief efforts on their 2010 tax return. This difference in policy as well as the widespread announcement of the Quebec policy provides a natural experiment for testing whether the timing associated with reporting donations on one's tax return and the salience of the announcement of the policy affects charitable giving. In Canada, all tax filers with a tax liability can benefit from the reporting of donations and the credit available for such donations is tied to the level of the reported donations. We find that Quebec taxpayers gave more than taxpayers in the rest of Canada during this period and that this effect is driven by both an extensive (increased givers) and intensive (increased giving) margin. This result has important policy implications and contributes to current debates on the use of tax incentives to encourage charitable giving. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (B.Sc. (Honours) in Economics)--Singapore Management University, 2004. / Senior thesis in part fulfillment for the BSc (Honours) in Economics degree presented to the School of Economics and Social Sciences, Singapore Management University 2003-2004. Includes bibliographical references (p. 41).

Although the non-profit sector is now the third largest sector of the global economy, relatively little is known about the psychological processes that underlie decisions to donate to charity. Across five experiments, the present research explores two factors that are thought to underlie giving: social norms and personal values. Study 1 elicits personal values and manipulates descriptive social norm information and finds that both of these factors influence giving behavior. Study 2 replicates these findings with injunctive norms in place of descriptive norms. Study 3 manipulates both descriptive and injunctive social norms within a single study and finds that while both have an influence on giving, they do not interact in any meaningful way with each other. Study 4 manipulates descriptive and injunctive norm information in the context of a realistic online donation decision and finds that both injunctive norms influence rates of giving, but that descriptive norm information alone influences willingness to give. Study 5 experimentally manipulates the costs and benefits associated with viewing social information and finds that while participants are willing to view social information when there are no associated costs, willingness to view information decreases dramatically under even very small costs. We conclude in Chapter 6 by discussing the implications of these findings and potential directions for future research.

Older adults have been shown to avoid negative and prefer positive information to a higher extent than younger adults. This positivity bias influences their information processing as well as decision-making. We investigate age-related positivity bias in charitable giving in two studies. In Study 1 we examine motivational factors in monetary donations, while Study 2 focuses on the emotional effect of actual monetary donations. In Study 1, participants (n = 353, age range 20-74 years) were asked to rate their affect toward a person in need and then state how much money they would be willing to donate to help this person. In Study 2, participants (n = 108, age range 19-89) were asked to rate their affect toward a donation made a few days prior. Regression analysis was used to investigate whether or not the positivity bias influences the relationship between affect and donations. In Study 1, we found that older adults felt more sympathy and compassion and were less motivated by negative affect when compared to younger adults, who were motivated by both negative and positive affect. In Study 2, we found that the level of positive emotional reactions from monetary donations was higher in older participants compared to younger participants. We find support for an age-related positivity bias in charitable giving. This is true for motivation to make a future donation, as well as affective thinking about a previous donation. We conclude that older adults draw more positive affect from both the planning and outcome of monetary donations and hence benefit more from engaging in monetary charity than their younger counterparts. (authors' abstract)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 2002. / UMI number: 3060191. Includes bibliographical references (p. 235-257). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 56-62). Also available in electronic version.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This dissertation contains three essays examining empathy and its implications for prosocial behavior and arts engagement. Empathy here refers to both compassion and concern for others (emotional empathy) and the understanding of the feelings and needs of others (cognitive empathy). Empathy is fundamental to our social life, and this dissertation explores its implications for two essential components of social life: prosocial behavior and arts engagement. Chapter 2 examines how three dimensions of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI; Davis, 1983)—empathic concern, perspective taking, and personal distress—are associated with charitable giving, and whether these associations vary across charitable causes. Using data from a nationally representative sample of American adults, the study confirms that the three IRI dimensions are associated with charitable giving in different ways. Chapter 3 focuses on the interplay of trait empathy and people’s tendencies to diversify (spread out) their prosocial behavior. By analyzing data from two samples of American adults, this study reveals that people with higher empathic concern (emotional empathy) versus higher perspective taking (cognitive empathy) have distinct patterns in how they spread out their monetary gifts, but trait empathy is not associated with the distribution of time spent in helping others.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, 2008. / Department of Philanthropic Studies, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Adrian Sargeant, Dwight F. Burlingame, Richard Gunderman, Leslie Lenkowsky. Includes vitae. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-131).

This paper explores cross-country variations in charitable giving and investigates the association of welfare state policies with private philanthropy. Hypotheses are drawn from crowding-out theory and considerations about the influence of a country's mixed economy of welfare. We add to the on-going discussion concerning the crowding-out hypothesis with empirical evidence by looking at specific charitable subsectors people donate to across countries. Using Eurobarometer survey data that include 23 countries, we find no evidence for a crowding-out effect, but rather a crosswise crowding-in effect of private donations. Moreover, giving behaviour differs between non-profit regimes.

Doctor of Philosophy / School of Family Studies and Human Services / Sonya Britt / The purpose of this research study was to investigate the determinants that explain and predict Christian’s intentions to make lifetime gifts to charities. The research was guided by the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991) utilizing an expanded model that anticipated Christians who have (a) a favorable attitude toward giving, (b) a perceived pressure from social norms, (c) high levels of perceived behavioral control in their ability to make gifts, (d) a positive moral responsibility toward charitable giving, (e) a history of charitable giving, and (f) a faith based spiritual desire to pursue the Christian way of life would be more inclined to have giving intentions. Survey data were obtained through two pilot studies and a main study (N = 250). The pilot study participants were recruited through the researcher’s social network. The main study participants were enlisted through a contract with Qualtrics, an online survey organization that maintains panels of likely research subjects. Hierarchical linear regression identified support for traditional and expanded models of the theory of planned behavior. In the traditional model, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control, all predicted donative intent. In the expanded model, not moral norms, past behavior, and the Christian way of life predicted donating intentions; however, perceived behavioral control a significant predictor in the traditional model, did not predict donative intent. The traditional theory of planned behavior accounted for 65%, and expanded predictors added 11% to the explanation of intention to donate to non-profit organizations in the coming year. The current research has both theoretical and applied implications. Consistent with Fishbein and Ajzen’s (2010) encouragement to improve the traditional model, the expanded model enhanced the predictive ability of the theory of planned behavior with a new determinant, the Christian way of life. The current research also reaffirms the predictive ability of the previously tested factor past behavior and not moral norms. Non-profit organizations may apply these findings by targeting the salient beliefs that are foundational to all predictors of intentions. The current research has identified beliefs associated with attitudes, social norms, perceived behavioral control, moral norms, past behavior, and the Christian way of life that offer non-profit organizations educational opportunities to intervene with donors to improve charitable behavior.