Charitable Giving Responses to Education Budgets
Do changes in government spending affect voluntary contributions to those recipients? We examine how changes in K-12 education budgets impact donations to teachers using data from DonorsChoose.org, an online crowdfunding platform for public school teachers to raise money. We find a positive correlation between budgets and voluntary contributions when not accounting for their endogeneous relationship. With instrumental variables, we find evidence for crowd-out of private giving, though the magnitudes are small relative to spending and do not meaningfully offset budget changes. These results are driven entirely by teachers’ posting of requests.
-
-
Copy CitationJonathan Meer and Hedieh Tajali, "Charitable Giving Responses to Education Budgets," NBER Working Paper 29331 (2021), https://doi.org/10.3386/w29331.Download Citation
-
Published Versions
Jonathan Meer & Hedieh Tajali, 2025. "Charitable giving responses to education budgets," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 63(3), pages 865-887, July, DOI: 10.1111/ecin.13286. citation courtesy of 
Jonathan Meer & Hedieh Tajali, 2025. "Charitable giving responses to education budgets," Economic Inquiry, vol 63(3), pages 865-887.
More from the NBER
In addition to working papers, the NBER disseminates affiliates’ latest findings through a range of free periodicals—the NBER Reporter, the NBER Digest, the Bulletin on Health, the Bulletin on the Economics of Alzheimer's, and the Bulletin on Entrepreneurship—as well as research spotlights, lectures, and panel videos.
