The Impact of Public Assistance Use on Charitable Giving: Evidence from the USA and China

Government assistance and family charitable giving: Comparing urban and rural residents in China

“…As a source of financial support that government provides for eligible individuals and/or families, such as low‐income, elderly, disabled, and/or disaster victims, government assistance could have either a positive or a negative association with charitable giving. Empirical evidence suggests that government assistance recipients tend to donate more since it increases their income and the capacity to give (Brooks, 2002; Yang et al., 2021). Additionally, government assistance may have a serial reciprocity effect as the recipients may decide to repay the help they have received from the government by donating to charities (Moody, 2008).…”

“…The income‐related (or means‐tested) government assistance programs, such as Dibao and basic assistance programs, focus on low‐income and extremely low‐income individuals and/or families. As the largest safety net program implemented in all urban areas in 1999 and extended to rural areas in 2007, Dibao offers monthly or quarterly cash transfer payments to individuals/families whose income is below the local minimum standard of living (Gao, 2017; Yang et al., 2021). In 2019, about 5.25 million urban families and 18.92 million rural families received Dibao assistance, and the Chinese government spent a total of 164.7 billion yuan (approximately 25.34 billion dollars) for the program, including 51.95 billion yuan (approximately 8 billion dollars) for urban families and 112.72 billion yuan (approximately 17.34 billion dollars) for rural families (Ministry of Civil Affairs, 2020).…”

“…The income-related (or meanstested) government assistance programs, such as Dibao and basic assistance programs, focus on low-income and extremely low-income individuals and/or families. As the largest safety net program implemented in all urban areas in 1999 and extended to rural areas in 2007, Dibao offers monthly or quarterly cash transfer payments to individuals/families whose income is below the local minimum standard of living (Gao, 2017;Yang et al, 2021) As the Chinese government is traditionally perceived as the main social service provider for the needy, and the government assistance recipients are mostly low-income and vulnerable people, we expect the government assistance recipients to perceive less responsibility to donate to formal charities. Therefore, we posit,…”

“…Yang et al. (2021) conduct a comparative study to show that public assistance income is negatively associated with secular giving, and prior public assistance use is negatively related to both religious and total giving in the US, but there is no statistically significant relationship between public assistance use and charitable giving in China. Given the significant increase (i.e., an annual growth of 28% from 2000 to 2014) in government expenditure on the major government assistance program in China, the Minimum Livelihood Guarantee Scheme ( Dibao ; Qian & Mok, 2016), and the growing role that charitable giving plays in social development in the country, it would be imperative for scholars and practitioners to understand how government assistance program could potentially influence individuals' charitable behavior in China.…”

Official Turnover and Corporate ESG Practices: Evidence from China

“…Therefore, when the turnover of o cials leads to a transfer of political power, companies want to be the rst to establish a political connection with the succeeding o cials. For new o cials, they are often in urgent need of environmental protection projects and livelihood projects to gain public recognition, which gives companies room to help o cials build political performance and realize political rent-seeking by increasing ESG investment in social responsibility and environmental protection Yang et al, 2021). Therefore, from the motivation of "development", companies will also actively invest in ESG when facing the turnover of o cials.…”