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Is Volunteering Rewarding in Itself?

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Author Info
Stephan Meier
Alois Stutzer

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Abstract

Volunteering constitutes one of the most important pro-social activities. Following Adam Smith, helping others is the way to higher individual well-being. This view contrasts with the selfish utility maximizer who avoids costs from helping others. The two rival views are studied empirically. We find robust evidence that volunteers are more satisfied with their life than non-volunteers. Causality is addressed taking advantage of a natural experiment: the collapse of East Germany and its infrastructure of volunteering. People who accidentally lost their opportunities for volunteering are compared to people who experienced no change in their volunteer status.

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Paper provided by Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW in its series IEW - Working Papers with number iewwp180.

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Handle: RePEc:zur:iewwpx:180

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Related research
Keywords: happiness; pro-social behavior; subjective well-being; volunteering;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism
I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty - - - General Welfare
J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Social Norms and Social Capital; Social Networks Economic Anthropology

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References listed on IDEAS
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    Other versions:
  2. Schram, Vicki R & Dunsing, Marilyn M, 1981. " Influences on Married Women's Volunteer Work Participation," Journal of Consumer Research: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, University of Chicago Press, vol. 7(4), pages 372-79, March.
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  4. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2002. "What Can Economists Learn from Happiness Research?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(2), pages 402-435, June.
    Other versions:
  5. Andrew Clark & Ed Diener & Yannis Georgellis & Richard E. Lucas, 2003. "Lags and Leads in Life Satisfaction: A Test of the Baseline Hypothesis," DELTA Working Papers 2003-14, DELTA (Ecole normale supérieure). [Downloadable!]
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  6. Rafael Di Tella & Robert J. MacCulloch & Andrew J. Oswald, 2001. "Preferences over Inflation and Unemployment: Evidence from Surveys of Happiness," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(1), pages 335-341, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Andreoni, James, 1990. "Impure Altruism and Donations to Public Goods: A Theory of Warm-Glow Giving?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 100(401), pages 464-77, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Alois Stutzer & Bruno S. Frey, 2003. "Reported Subjective Well-Being: A Challenge for Economic Theory and Economic Policy," CREMA Working Paper Series 2003-07, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA). [Downloadable!]
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  14. Fehr, Ernst & Schmidt, Klaus M., 2001. "Theories of Fairness and Reciprocity," Discussion Papers in Economics 14, University of Munich, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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    Other versions:
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Bruna, Bruno & Damiano, Fiorillo, 2009. "Why without Pay? The Intrinsic Motivation between Investment and Consumption in Unpaid Labour Supply," CELPE Discussion Papers 111, CELPE (Centre of Labour Economics and Economic Policy), University of Salerno, Italy. [Downloadable!]
  2. Eva M. Berger, 2009. "Maternal Employment and Happiness: The Effect of Non-Participation and Part-Time Employment on Mothers' Life Satisfaction," SOEPpapers 178, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). [Downloadable!]
  3. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, . "Economic Consequences of Mispredicting Utility," IEW - Working Papers iewwp218, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, . "Happiness Research: State and Prospects," IEW - Working Papers iewwp190, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Leonardo Becchetti & Elena Giachin Ricca & Alessandra Pelloni, 2009. "The 60s Turnaround as a Test on the Causal Relationship between Sociability and Happiness," SOEPpapers 209, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. James, Harvey S., Jr. & Chymis, Athanasios G., 2004. "Are Happy People Ethical People? Evidence From North America And Europe," Working Papers 26034, University of Missouri Columbia, Department of Agricultural Economics. [Downloadable!]
  7. Jane Kolodinsky & Garret Kimberly & Jonathan Isham, 2004. "Effects of Volunteering for Nonprofit Organizations on Social Capital Formation: Evidence from a Statewide Survey," Middlebury College Working Paper Series 0305r, Middlebury College, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  8. Leonardo Becchetti & Alessandra Pelloni & Fiammetta Rossetti, 2008. "Relational Goods, Sociability, and happiness," CEIS Research Paper 117, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 14 Jul 2008. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Luigino Bruni & Luca Stanca, 2005. "Watching alone: Relational Goods, Television and Happiness," Working Papers 90, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Jun 2005. [Downloadable!]
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  10. Franz Hackl & Martin Halla & Gerald J Pruckner, 2004. "The fallacy of the Good Samaritan: Volunteering as a weird way of making money," Economics working papers 2004-15, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria. [Downloadable!]
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  11. Felicia A. Huppert & Nic Marks & Andrew E. Clark & Johannes Siegrist & Alois Stutzer & Joar Vittersø & Morten Wahrendorf, 2008. "Measuring well-being across Europe: Description of the ESS Well-being Module and preliminary findings," PSE Working Papers 2008-40, PSE (Ecole normale supérieure). [Downloadable!]
  12. Julio Videras & Ann Owen, 2006. "Public Goods Provision and Well-Being: Empirical Evidence Consistent with the Warm Glow Theory," Contributions to Economic Analysis & Policy, Berkeley Electronic Press, vol. 5(1), pages 1531-1531. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Fiorillo, Damiano, 2007. "Do monetary rewards undermine intrinsic motivations of volunteers? Some empirical evidence for Italian volunteers," MPRA Paper 7783, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
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