A signaling explanation for charity
Article Abstract:
The desire to indicate that one is wealthy is analyzed as a possible motive for charitable giving. The theory is based on the assumption that people are willing to donate to charity even if they will not add to the public good. Findings indicate that a person is more willing to donate to an organization because it is very likely that the intended audience will know about the donation. Therefore, market forces cause non-profit organizations to render services even though they are not required to give services with the money they receive.
Publication Name: American Economic Review
Subject: Economics
ISSN: 0002-8282
Year: 1996
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Politics and the choice of durability: reply
Article Abstract:
Hans Gersbach, in a 1993 study, demonstrates that voters show a bias toward durable projects, even under conditions of certainty about future policy. An analysis of this conclusion indicates that the bias has a general source. Individual decision making allows for optimization, but a voter's preferential policy may not be the policy that is adopted under collective decision making. Collective decision making plays a role in government failure, along with special interests and free-rider problems.
Publication Name: American Economic Review
Subject: Economics
ISSN: 0002-8282
Year: 1993
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Politics and the choice of durability: comment
Article Abstract:
Amihai Glazer, in a 1989 study, used a two-period model to show that rational agents are biased in favor of durable projects under conditions of collective, rather than individual, decision making. An analysis of Glazer's research indicates that this bias exists only if exogenous uncertainty about future decisions is present. Information that permits the exploitation of minorities by majorities causes voters to be biased in favor of durable projects.
Publication Name: American Economic Review
Subject: Economics
ISSN: 0002-8282
Year: 1993
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: Fuzzy inductive reasoning, expectation formation and the behavior of security prices. Trigger-target rules and the dynamics of aggregate money holdings
- Abstracts: Growth under uncertainty with experimentation. Human capital and the future of transition economies. The politics of co-optation
- Abstracts: Transaction costs and predictability: some utility cost calculations
- Abstracts: Credit constraints and international financial crises. Credit market frictions and the allocations of resources over the business cycle
- Abstracts: Specialization and product diversity. Price cycles and booms: dynamic search equilibrium. Continuum of equilibria and business cycles: a dynamic model of mesoeconomics