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The Intensive Margin of Altruism: Impact of Covid-19 on Charitable Giving in England and Wales

Author

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  • Esteban Jaimovich

    (University of Turin)

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on private donations using data on charities’ annual returns filed to the Charity Commission for England and Wales. By exploiting variation in mortality rates across narrow geographic units (local authorities), I show that donations to health charities operating in more severely hit areas have increased significantly more than those to health charities in areas hit more mildly, and that this effect is quantitatively large. In addition, when comparing the post-pandemic increase in donations to health charities vis-a-vis to non-health charities within a triple-difference setup, the analysis reveals that the growth differential between them turns out to be greater in areas that suffered worse fatality rates. The evidence in the paper suggests that the relative severity of adverse events is a crucial dimension guiding the allocation of charitable giving.

Suggested Citation

  • Esteban Jaimovich, 2024. "The Intensive Margin of Altruism: Impact of Covid-19 on Charitable Giving in England and Wales," Working Papers 297, Red Nacional de Investigadores en Economía (RedNIE).
    • Handle: RePEc:aoz:wpaper:297
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    File URL: https://rednie.eco.unc.edu.ar/files/DT/297.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brown, Sarah & Harris, Mark N. & Taylor, Karl, 2012. "Modelling charitable donations to an unexpected natural disaster: Evidence from the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 97-110.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Charitable giving; Nonprofit organisations; Covid-19;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • L30 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - General
    • L31 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship

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