TY  - JOUR
AU  - Landry,Craig
AU  - Lange,Andreas
AU  - List,John A.
AU  - Price,Michael K.
AU  - Rupp,Nicholas G.
TI  - Toward an Understanding of the Economics of Charity: Evidence from a Field Experiment
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 11611
PY  - 2005
Y2  - September 2005
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11611
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11611.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Craig Landry
East Carolina University
E-Mail: landryc@ecu.edu

Andreas Lange
University of Hamburg
Department of Economics
Von Melle Park 5
20146 Hamburg
Germany
Tel: +49-40-42838-4035
Fax: +49-40-42838-3243
E-Mail: andreas.lange@wiso.uni-hamburg.de

John List
Department of Economics
University of Chicago
1126 East 59th
Chicago, IL 60637
Tel: 301/405-1288
Fax: 301/314-9091
E-Mail: jlist@uchicago.edu

Michael Price
Department of Economics
Andrew Young School of Policy Studies
Georgia State University
P.O. Box 3992
Atlanta, GA 30302-3992
Fax: 404-413-0141
E-Mail: mprice25@gsu.edu

Nicholas G. Rupp
East Carolina University
E-Mail: ruppn@ecu.edu
AB  - This study develops theory and uses a door-to-door fundraising field experiment to explore the economics of charity. We approached nearly 5000 households, randomly divided into four experimental treatments, to shed light on key issues on the demand side of charitable fundraising. Empirical results are in line with our theory: in gross terms, our lottery treatments raised considerably more money than our voluntary contributions treatments. Interestingly, we find that a one standard deviation increase in female solicitor physical attractiveness is similar to that of the lottery incentive¡ªthe magnitude of the estimated difference in gifts is roughly equivalent to the treatment effect of moving from our theoretically most attractive approach (lotteries) to our least attractive approach (voluntary contributions).
ER  -