Abstract
The explicit hierarchy of recognition in alumni giving offers a useful context in which to examine the nature of gender differences regarding charitable giving. Using 31 years of alumni-giving records at a small liberal arts college, we find that women are more likely to be donors. Among donors, women tend to give more frequently but generally make smaller donations than men. These results hold even after controlling for age, income, and participation in Greek organizations. The results are consistent with the hypotheses that the drive for recognition of charitable giving is stronger in men than women, and that women are more reciprocal than men.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Indeed, we re-estimated the regressions in Table 4 replacing the total amount given with the log of the average gift. We find that the average gift of women is about 10 percent smaller than that of men. The difference is statistically significant.
This interpretation is consistent with the psychology literature that finds women more helping and nurturing, and men more heroic and chivalrous [Eagley and Crowley 1986].
References
Andreoni, James, and Lise Vesterlund . 2001. Which Is the Fair Sex? Gender Differences in Altruism. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 116 (1): 293–312.
Andreoni, James, Brown Eleanor, and Rischall Isaac . 2003. Charitable Giving by Married Couples. Who Decides and Why Does it Matter? The Journal of Human Resources, 38 (1): 111–133.
Baade, Robert A., and Jeffrey O. Sundberg . 1996. What Determines Alumni Giving. Economics of Education Review, 15 (1): 75–81.
Bekkers, René, and Pamala Wiepking . 2007. Generosity and Philanthropy: A Literature Review, Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1015507.
Belfield, C.R., and A.P. Beney . 2000. What Determines Alumni Generosity? Evidence for the UK. Education Economics, 8 (1): 65–80.
Ben-Ner, Avner, Louis Putterman, Fanmin Kong, and Dan Magan . 2004. Reciprocity in a Two-part Dictator Game. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 53 (3): 333–352.
Brown, Eleanor, and James M. Ferris . 2007. Social Capital and Philanthropy: An Analysis of the Impact of Social Capital on Individual Giving and Volunteering. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 36 (1): 85–99.
Bruggink, Thomas H., and Kamran Siddiqui . 1995. An Econometric Model of Alumni Giving: A Case Study for a Liberal Arts College. The American Economist, 39 (2): 53–59.
Buchan, Nancy R., Rachel Croson, and Sara J. Solnick . 2008. Trust and Gender: An Examination of Behavior and Beliefs in the Investment Game. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 68 (3–4): 466–476.
Clotfelter, Charles T. 2001. Who are the Alumni Donors? Giving by Two Generations of Alumni from Selective Colleges. Nonprofit Management & Leadership, 12 (2): 119–139.
Clotfelter, Charles T. 2003. Alumni Giving to Elite Private Colleges and Universities. Economics of Education Review, 22 (2): 109–120.
Croson, Rachel, and Uri Gneezy . 2009. Gender Differences in Preferences. Journal of Economic Literature, 47 (2): 1–27.
Eagley, Alice H., and Maureen Crowley . 1986. Gender and Helping Behavior: Meta-analytic Review of the Social Psychological Literature. Psychological Bulletin, 100 (3): 293–308.
Falk, Armin, and Urs Fischbacher . 2006. A Theory of Reciprocity. Games and Economic Behavior, 54 (2): 293–315.
Geronimus, Arline T., John Bound, and Lisa J. Neidert . 1996. On the Validity of Using Census Geocode Characteristics to Proxy Individual Socioeconomic Characteristics. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 91 (434): 529–537.
Harbaugh, William T. 1998. What Do Donations Buy?: A Model of Philanthropy Based on Prestige and Warm Glow. Journal of Public Economics, 67 (2): 269–284.
Holmes, Jessica A., James A. Meditz, and Paul M. Sommers . 2008. Athletics and Alumni Giving: Evidence from a Highly Selective Liberal Arts College. Journal of Sports Economics, 9 (5): 538–552.
Marr, Kelly A., Charles H. Mullin, and John J. Siegfried . 2005. Undergraduate Financial Aid and Subsequent Alumni Giving Behavior. The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 45 (1): 123–143.
Meer, Jonathan, and Harvey S. Rosen . 2009a. The Impact of Athletic Performance on Alumni Giving: An Analysis of Microdata. Economics of Education Review, 28 (3): 287–294.
Meer, Jonathan, and Harvey S. Rosen . 2009b. Altruism and the Child Cycle of Alumni Donations. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 1 (1): 258–286.
Okunade, Albert A. 1996. Graduate School Alumni Donations to Academic Funds: Micro-data Evidence. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 55 (2): 213–229.
Okunade, Albert Ade, Phanindra V. Wunnava, and Raymond Walsh, Jr. . 1994. Charitable Giving of Alumni: Micro-data Evidence from a Large Public University. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 53 (1): 73–84.
Wunnava, Phanindra V., and Michael Lauze . 2001. Alumni Giving at a Small Liberal Arts College: Evidence from Consistent and Occasional Donors. Economics of Education Review, 20 (6): 533–543.
Yoruk, Baris K. 2010. Charitable Giving by Married Couples Revisited. Journal of Human Resources, 45 (2): 497–516.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
†Most of this paper was written while Toubman was an undergraduate student at Union College.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dvorak, T., Toubman, S. Are Women More Generous than Men? Evidence from Alumni Donations. Eastern Econ J 39, 121–131 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1057/eej.2012.30
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/eej.2012.30