Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to offer two empirical analyses of differences in the donations of money and time between males and females based on the impact of identical variables on the donation of money and time. Analysis was made of not only how a person's giving patterns are determined for both sexes, but also what portion of differences in giving patterns can be explained by observable and unobservable characteristics between men and women. Design/methodology/approach -The US dataset Giving and Volunteering 1999 was used in the study. Findings -It was found that, on average, women are predicted to donate more of both money and time. Variables affecting money donations are significant and robust for both males and females, whereas the variation in time donation is poorly explained by the same variables. A substantial portion of the money and time donation differential gap (over 85 percent in time donation) is unexplained by mean levels of characteristics such as, wage, age and experience. Practical implications -While the issue of whether altruism is innate or the product of socialization is not addressed, these results imply that women bring an extra willingness to give and to volunteer than do men. As women gain economic power in the marketplace, this may result in even more giving and volunteering, creating a windfall to organizations that rely on such donations. Originality/value -Organizations that rely on women for donations of time and money may find these results interesting. They imply that women are motivated by forces not easily captured by a traditional wage equation, especially when looking at donations of time.
The authors examine data on giving and volunteering to determine whether public provision of social services and other public goods affects donations of time and money and provides evidence of crowding out. They find a negative and statistically significant relationship between government spending and donations of money and time. They also find that volunteers have demographic and other characteristics that are associated with high values of time and money.
Are organizations that use volunteers content to accept all of the volunteer labour offered to them, or do they make some sort of demandside decision as to how much volunteer labour to use? This paper looks for evidence of such a demand curve for volunteer labour in data collected by the Urban Instilute in the early 1980s. Evidence is found that organizations are consistent over time in their use of volunteer labour.
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