Relational Warm Glow and Giving in Social Groups
25 Pages Posted: 25 Sep 2014
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Relational Warm Glow and Giving in Social Groups
Date Written: June 2014
Abstract
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.
Keywords: charity, donations, fundraising, online giving, social groups, warm glow
JEL Classification: D64, H31, Z1
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation