An empirical analysis on preferences and pro-social behavior: International comparative study on individual
philanthropy
Naoko Okuyama, Osaka University
[Research Objectives]
In some societies, we have seen a rapid growth of modern civil society in the past decades on the one hand and
unchanged low rate of philanthropy participation and undeveloped institutions during this period on the other hand.
Such a gap attributes to a lack of consciousness and attitude of having, showing, or actively carrying out ones
concern for the condition and affairs of one’s community and society. Civic engagement represents one of individual
capacities of addressing public and civic virtue, and individuals and communities are critical and sensitive actors in
the act of philanthropy in terms of demonstrating their awareness and perceptions about economic and social issues
and institutions. In this sense, giving and volunteering are the indices measuring the breadth and depth of civic
engagement, and social preference is a unique parameter to explain these forms with an aim to study a mode of civic
engagement and the establishment of its culture and practice. This study investigates whether and how social
preferences and behavioral capacity of philanthropy participation correlate each other. We focus on international
evidence with the use of cross-country datasets, and scrutinize a specific region, Asia Pacific, where have drawn
attention as their emerging and still developing civil society as well as have a unique mode and practice of
philanthropy.
[Methodology and Sources]
We conduct an empirical analysis with econometric models and the use of cross-country datasets provided from
Charities Aid Foundation’s World Giving Index and Gallup’s WorldView (no interword space) World Poll. The World
Giving Index is generated in aiming to provide internationally comparable figures on participation in philanthropy.
Gallup’s WorldView World Poll, which is the base of the creation of the World Giving Index, is an ongoing research
project and conducts a worldwide survey with an aim to provide numerical information about citizens’ attitudes and
behaviors globally. The survey includes interesting questions on individual preferences and perceptions for economic
and social issues and institutions. Also Gallup’s Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index and World Indexes are
employed as well in order to control sociodemographic and economic traits of each country and generate the social
preference-oriented variables. Cross-reference of these datasets provides a bunch of rich and unique information
about civic engagement of each country’s population, as well as key responses to attitudes and behaviors such as
altruism and pro-social mindsets.
Futhermore, in aiming to test the robustness of the empirical results obtained from the use of aggregated crosscountry data, we utilize a micro panel dataset called “Preference Parameters Study” which is provided by the Global
COE Project of Graduate School of Economics at Osaka University and make us possible to compare several
countries.
[Contribution]
With unique datasets making it possible to generate variables for social preferences, as well as to make crossnational and cross-regional analysis, it is expected that we are able to test the relationship between social
preferences and pro-social behavior more precisely than ever. In addition to exemplify the their relations and impacts,
focusing on a specific regional target with unique multi-dimensional contexts, we expect that our findings also raise
discussions and questions on how to possibly encourage and design policy action for the creation of favorable
environment of philanthropy and civil society in the uncertainty of global economy and heterogeneity of local
community.
[References]
Frey, B.S., and Stephan M. (2004). Social comparison and pro-social behavior: Testing 'conditional cooperation' in a
field experiment, American Economic Review, 94(5): 1717-1722.
Meier, S. (2006) A survey of economic theories and field evidence on pro-social
behavior, Research Center for Behavioral Economics and Decision-Making Federal
Researve Back of Boston Working Paper 06-6.
Oppenheimer, Daniel M. and Olivola, Christopher Y. eds. 2010. The Science of Giving: Experimental Approaches to
the Study of Charity. New York: Psychology Press.
Page, Talbot, Putterman, Louis, and Bruce Unel. 2005. Voluntary association in public
goods experiments: Reciprocity, mimicry and efficiency, Economic Journal, 115(506): 1032-1053.