Economic theories usually assume that the amount of work offered by individuals increase as
wages and salaries increase. However, there are volunteers who present their work without
payment for the production of goods and services, for the benefit of others. Volunteer work is
of significance in a time when social safety nets are weak and there are ever increasing
demands on welfare organisations. Volunteers can make a difference in their communities
and entire society in general which means that if they are understood better, it may be
possible to harness their power for the greater good. Therefore, this thesis analyses volunteers
and volunteerism in South Africa and the factors that determine their efforts.
The manuscript presents a critical discussion of economic theories of volunteering, major
concepts and types of volunteers to arrive at a plausible set of models explaining
volunteerism and the general motives of volunteers. The descriptive analysis of data sets from
the Labour Force Survey was conducted. The data also allows for the estimation of a limited
dependent variable regression model of the probability of volunteering as a function of
individual-specific predictors. The results from Logit (Binary LogitRegression) regression
showed that all estimated coefficients have the expected signs: Females are more likely to do
volunteer work more than males; older people are more likely to participate more in volunteer
activities than middle age and younger ones. The results also reveal that the higher your level
of education, the more likely you will be to do volunteer work. This was the same with
income: higher income individuals are more likely to do volunteer work.
This study also used data from the Volunteer Activities Survey (VAS) to describe volunteers
and estimate a model of the determinants of hours of volunteer work supplied. The results
indicate a robust relationships between volunteered and determinant such as gender, age
group; population group, level of education, income category, marital status and employment
status, to mention few. Results from the regression model show that age is positively related
to hours spend doing volunteer work. Even though the gender variable is found to be not
statistically significant, the results indicated that women do volunteer work more than men.
The further a person is educated the more he/she will participate in voluntary work. The
evidence indicated that there is a positive relationship between income and hours of
volunteering. The evidence provides a number of findings that are important to policymakers, non-profit
organisations and all other stakeholders in volunteerism. This study could be used to devise
more efficient and effective plans of how the number of volunteers and the hours that they
volunteer could be retained and increased. / PhD (Economics), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/11919 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Niyimbanira, Ferdinand |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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