IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/8x7d2.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

“Desperately Need a Car”: Analyzing Crowdfunding Campaigns for Car Purchases and Repairs on Gofundme.com

Author

Listed:
  • Klein, Nicholas J.

    (Conrell University)

  • Tran, Minh
  • Riley, Sarah

Abstract

Our study explores the phenomenon of using the crowdfunding website GoFundMe.com to raise money to purchase and or repair a personal vehicle. We use both text mining and qualitative analysis methods to ask three research questions about GoFundMe campaigns from the United States created in 2018 and 2019. First, how do campaigners on GoFundMe describe their need for personal vehicles? Second, what precipitating events led them to seek crowdfunding for a car purchase or repair? Third, what are broader contexts for these requests for financial assistance? We find that many campaigns describe several interrelated crises, complications, or challenges that the campaigners faced, such as medical conditions, loss of employment, and housing crises. Most campaigners are without a functioning car because of an unexpected event—a car crash, a breakdown, or repairs piling up—combined with their inability to pay for the repairs or replacement. Finally, campaigners wanted cars to travel to work and school, to chauffeur children, and to access medical care.

Suggested Citation

  • Klein, Nicholas J. & Tran, Minh & Riley, Sarah, 2020. "“Desperately Need a Car”: Analyzing Crowdfunding Campaigns for Car Purchases and Repairs on Gofundme.com," SocArXiv 8x7d2, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:8x7d2
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/8x7d2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/5deff451078b52000a58c42e/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/8x7d2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Schneider, Anne & Ingram, Helen, 1993. "Social Construction of Target Populations: Implications for Politics and Policy," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 87(2), pages 334-347, June.
    2. Grengs, Joe, 2010. "Job accessibility and the modal mismatch in Detroit," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 42-54.
    3. Rau, Henrike & Manton, Richard, 2016. "Life events and mobility milestones: Advances in mobility biography theory and research," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 51-60.
    4. Mitra, Suman K. & Saphores, Jean-Daniel M., 2017. "Carless in California: Green choice or misery?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 1-12.
    5. Evelyn Blumenberg & Gregory Pierce, 2014. "A Driving Factor in Mobility? Transportation's Role in Connecting Subsidized Housing and Employment Outcomes in the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) Program," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 80(1), pages 52-66, January.
    6. Jae Sik Jeon & Casey Dawkins & Rolf Pendall, 2018. "How Vehicle Access Enables Low-Income Households to Live in Better Neighborhoods," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(6), pages 920-939, November.
    7. Weinberger, Rachel, 2012. "Death by a thousand curb-cuts: Evidence on the effect of minimum parking requirements on the choice to drive," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 93-102.
    8. Katz, Michael B., 2013. "The Undeserving Poor: America's Enduring Confrontation with Poverty: Fully Updated and Revised," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199933952.
    9. Christopher Zegras, 2010. "The Built Environment and Motor Vehicle Ownership and Use: Evidence from Santiago de Chile," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(8), pages 1793-1817, July.
    10. Salon, Deborah, 2009. "Neighborhoods, cars, and commuting in New York City: A discrete choice approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 180-196, February.
    11. Raphael, Steven & Rice, Lorien, 2002. "Car ownership, employment, and earnings," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 109-130, July.
    12. Scheiner, Joachim & Holz-Rau, Christian, 2013. "A comprehensive study of life course, cohort, and period effects on changes in travel mode use," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 167-181.
    13. Ayres, Ian & Siegelman, Peter, 1995. "Race and Gender Discrimination in Bargaining for a New Car," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(3), pages 304-321, June.
    14. Zhan Guo, 2013. "Residential Street Parking and Car Ownership," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 79(1), pages 32-48, January.
    15. Brown, Anne E., 2017. "Car-less or car-free? Socioeconomic and mobility differences among zero-car households," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 152-159.
    16. Nicholas J. Klein & Michael J. Smart, 2017. "Car today, gone tomorrow: The ephemeral car in low-income, immigrant and minority families," Transportation, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 495-510, May.
    17. Baum, Charles L., 2009. "The effects of vehicle ownership on employment," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 151-163, November.
    18. Mizuki Kawabata & Qing Shen, 2007. "Commuting Inequality between Cars and Public Transit: The Case of the San Francisco Bay Area, 1990-2000," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(9), pages 1759-1780, August.
    19. Gurley, Tami & Bruce, Donald, 2005. "The effects of car access on employment outcomes for welfare recipients," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 250-272, September.
    20. Daniel G. Chatman, 2013. "Does TOD Need the T?," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 79(1), pages 17-31, January.
    21. Snyder, Jeremy & Mathers, Annalise & Crooks, Valorie A., 2016. "Fund my treatment!: A call for ethics-focused social science research into the use of crowdfunding for medical care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 27-30.
    22. Giuliano, Genevieve & Dargay, Joyce, 2006. "Car ownership, travel and land use: a comparison of the US and Great Britain," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 106-124, February.
    23. Paul M. Ong, 2002. "Car ownership and welfare-to-work," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(2), pages 239-252.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Allen, Jeff & Farber, Steven, 2020. "Suburbanization of transport poverty," SocArXiv hkpfj, Center for Open Science.
    2. Brown, Anne, 2024. "Driving to Opportunity? Work and Car Access Among Low-Income Ride-Hail and Delivery Drivers," OSF Preprints bdah6, Center for Open Science.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gautier, Pieter A. & Zenou, Yves, 2010. "Car ownership and the labor market of ethnic minorities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 392-403, May.
    2. Michael J. Smart & Nicholas J. Klein, 2020. "Disentangling the role of cars and transit in employment and labor earnings," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 1275-1309, June.
    3. Miwa Matsuo & Hiroyuki Iseki, 2020. "Giving up Job Search Because I Don't Have a Car: Labor Market Participation and Employment Status Among Single Mothers With and Without Cars," Discussion Paper Series DP2020-07, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.
    4. Lingqian Hu, 2017. "Job accessibility and employment outcomes: which income groups benefit the most?," Transportation, Springer, vol. 44(6), pages 1421-1443, November.
    5. Blumenberg, Evelyn & Pierce, Gregory, 2017. "Car access and long-term poverty exposure: Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) experiment," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 92-100.
    6. Andrew Schouten, 2022. "Residential relocations and changes in vehicle ownership," Transportation, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 89-113, February.
    7. Morris, Eric A. & Blumenberg, Evelyn & Guerra, Erick, 2020. "Does lacking a car put the brakes on activity participation? Private vehicle access and access to opportunities among low-income adults," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 375-397.
    8. Evelyn Blumenberg & Anne Brown & Andrew Schouten, 2020. "Car-deficit households: determinants and implications for household travel in the U.S," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 1103-1125, June.
    9. Zhao, Pengjun & Zhang, Yixue, 2018. "Travel behaviour and life course: Examining changes in car use after residential relocation in Beijing," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 41-53.
    10. Aliprantis, Dionissi & Martin, Hal & Tauber, Kristen, 2024. "What determines the success of housing mobility programs?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    11. Karadja, Mounir & Sundberg, Anton, 2023. "The labor market impact of a taxi driver’s license," Working Paper Series 2023:6, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    12. Lorien Rice & Cynthia Bansak, 2014. "The Effect Of Welfare Asset Rules On Auto Ownership, Employment, And Welfare Participation: A Longitudinal Analysis," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 32(2), pages 306-333, April.
    13. Albalate, Daniel & Gragera, Albert, 2020. "The impact of curbside parking regulations on car ownership," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    14. Thakuriah (Vonu), Piyushimita & Persky, Joseph & Soot, Siim & Sriraj, P.S., 2013. "Costs and benefits of employment transportation for low-wage workers: An assessment of job access public transportation services," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 31-42.
    15. Blumenberg, Evelyn & Paul, Julene & Pierce, Gregory, 2021. "Travel in the digital age: Vehicle ownership and technology-facilitated accessibility," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 86-94.
    16. Mbaye, Souleymane & Bunel, Mathieu & L'Horty, Yannick & Petit, Pascale & Parquet, Loïc du, 2020. "Discriminations in the market for “Lemons”: A multicriteria correspondence test in France," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    17. Cho, Heepyung, 2022. "Driver’s license reforms and job accessibility among undocumented immigrants," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    18. Brown, Anne E., 2017. "Car-less or car-free? Socioeconomic and mobility differences among zero-car households," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 152-159.
    19. Le Gallo, Julie & L'Horty, Yannick & Petit, Pascale, 2017. "Does enhanced mobility of young people improve employment and housing outcomes? Evidence from a large and controlled experiment in France," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 1-14.
    20. Dagney Faulk & Michael Hicks, 2010. "The Economic Effects of Bus Transit in Small Cities," Public Finance Review, , vol. 38(5), pages 513-539, September.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:8x7d2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arabixiv.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.