Volunteerism and Crowding out: Canadian Econometric Evidence

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.Abstract. Volunteers make an important contribution to Canadian society. What motivates people to volunteer, and do they respond to government expenditure decisions? We address this question with the use of a 1987 microdata set and find that while the level of government spending influences the decision to volunteer, it has no effect on the number of hours donated. Furthermore, the nature of this relationship depends upon the particular type of government expenditures. For instance, the number of volunteers contracts when expenditures on certain economy-related activities fall, while reductions in health care spending bring about an increased number of volunteers.

Volunteer Activity and the Demands of Work and Family

“…This effect of immigrant status is found in other econometric studies (Day and Devlin 1996;Devlin 2001;Vaillancourt 1994).…”

“…Comparisons are difficult, however, because of the differences in the data sets, specifications and subgroups. Vaillancourt (1994) and Day and Devlin (1996) use the 1987 Survey of Volunteering (VAT) which does not have crucial wage data. Statistics Canada studies that use the more recent 1997 or 2000 National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating (NSGVP) (respectively Hall et al 1998 and) either provide only cross-tabulations that do not control for the influence of other factors, or, as in the case of Devlin (2001), they focus on the impact of volunteering on earnings, and only verbally discuss the impact of the determinants of the volunteering decision, with no wage or income measures.…”

“…In studies that are unable to control for wages (Day and Devlin 1996;Vaillancourt 1994;Wong and Henson 2000) males are less likely to volunteer or the differences are insignificant, although Devlin (2001) finds that males are more likely to volunteer. In the raw tabulations (Appendix available on request from the authors) the proportions who volunteer are very similar for males (0.215) and females (0.207).…”

On time and money donations

“…that, among those who work in the market, the probability of volunteering is higher among those who also give money 12 . Thus, if only the total value of gifts matters and money and time donations are perfect substitutes, optimality conditions are determined by efficiency considerations.…”

“…Moreover, since time matters more than money, we also expect that 13 : 12 Under the hypothesis of perfect substituability of time and money donations for all individuals, the corresponding last two conditions would appear as follows: Pr(m > 0|t v > 0) = 1; Pr(t v > 0|m = 0) = 0 and Pr(m > 0|t n = 0) > 0; Pr(t v > 0|t n = 0) = 0. 13 We stress that these probability shifts should not be interpreted as causal effects.…”