Altruism among consumers as donors

Heger, Stephanie, Slonim, Robert, Tausch, Franziska and Tymula, Agnieszka (2021) Altruism among consumers as donors. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 189. pp. 611-622. ISSN 0167-2681

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Abstract

Like most charitable and non-profit organizations, the arts, cultural institutions and universities often ask individuals for financial gifts to help fund their operations. However, a key difference is that the individuals who are solicited for charitable donations by arts and cultural institutions are oftentimes also purchasing services from the same institution. Thus, an open question is whether, and how, individuals make trade-offs between charitable gifts and consumer purchases from the same institution. We investigate this question in an online experiment that asks Sydneysiders to make a series of decisions between donating to the iconic Sydney Opera House, purchasing merchandise from the Sydney Opera House and keeping money. Our findings show that demand for SOH merchandise and SOH donations are substitutes. Further, we find evidence that increasing the individuals’ awareness of the substitutability between money received from donations and money received from the sale of merchandise, increases the cross-price elasticity. This is particularly true for those individuals who positively identify with the Opera House. Our results suggest that the unique nature of arts, cultural and educational institutions as recipients of donations and providers of services mean that fundraising among “patrons” may crowd-in additional revenue.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	charitable giving,cross price elasticity,elasticity,economics and econometrics,organizational behavior and human resource management ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2000/2002
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Economics
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Behavioural Economics
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	05 Aug 2021 00:07
Last Modified:	31 Jan 2023 01:38
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/80971
DOI:	10.1016/j.jebo.2021.06.024

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