Sorting Into Incentives for Prosocial Behavior
Authors: Egon Tripodi, Christian J. Meyer
This paper studies incentivized voluntary contributions to a charitable activity. Motivated by the market for blood donations in Germany, we study a setting where different incentives coexist and agents can choose to donate without receiving monetary compensation. This lets agents reveal and signal their individual preferences through their actions. In a model that interacts image concerns of agents with intrinsic and extrinsic incentives to donate, we show that this setting can bring about efficiency gains in the collection similar to those deriving from self-selection in second-degree price discrimination. We develop a laboratory experiment to test our theoretical predictions under controlled conditions. Results show that a collection system where compensation can be turned down can improve the efficiency of collection. Introducing the choice to be compensated does not crowd out unpaid donations. A significant share of donors chooses to donate without being compensated. Heterogeneity in treatment effects suggests gender-specific preferences over signaling.
Keywords:
incentives prosocial behavior image concerns field experiments blood donation laboratory experiment sorting
incentives prosocial behavior image concerns field experiments blood donation laboratory experiment sorting