No excuses for good behavior: Volunteering and the social environment

We study the effect of the social environment on the quantity and quality of voluntary labor contributions. By extending Benabou and Tirole's (2006) image signaling framework, we derive theoretical predictions on time volunteered given (1) the availability of excuses to stop volunteering and (2...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of public economics 2011-06, Vol.95 (5), p.445-454
Main Authors: Linardi, Sera, McConnell, Margaret A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Economic behaviour
Experiments
Labor
Labour
Labour productivity
Non-profit organizations
Organizational design
Prosocial behavior
Prosocial behavior Experiments Voluntary contributions Labor Social image Organizational design
Quality standards
Signalling
Social environment
Social image
Voluntary contributions
Voluntary work
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Summary:We study the effect of the social environment on the quantity and quality of voluntary labor contributions. By extending Benabou and Tirole's (2006) image signaling framework, we derive theoretical predictions on time volunteered given (1) the availability of excuses to stop volunteering and (2) the presence of an authority figure. We test these predictions in an experiment where laboratory subjects are directly involved in a local nonprofit operation. We find that in the absence of excuses to stop volunteering, subjects volunteer longer without working less productively. This increase is partially driven by subjects' reluctance to be the first to stop volunteering. The presence of an authority figure has little impact, but the presence of peers has a positive and significant impact.
ISSN:0047-2727
1879-2316
DOI:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2010.06.020