Income Inequality Affects Donations Only for High-Income People Who Feel Financially Insecure and Distrust Others

Lucia  Macchia; Ashley V. Whillans

Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2019

Income Inequality Affects Donations Only for High-Income People Who Feel Financially Insecure and Distrust Others

Abstract

There is a growing debate about whether high-income individuals are more or less generous when income inequality is high. We advance this ongoing conversation by analysing a large and comprehensive data set with approximately one million respondents from 140 countries. In this data set, higher-income individuals who live in countries with greater income inequality are less likely to donate money to charity and are more likely to volunteer than their lower-income counterparts. Higher-income individuals who feel financially insecure or show distrust of others are especially unlikely to donate money to charity under high income inequality. These moderators do not influence rates of volunteering. Together, these results advance the debate regarding whether and when inequality shapes prosocial behaviour.

Keywords: income inequality; prosocial behavior; financial insecurity; Income; Equality and Inequality; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Behavior; Trust;

Language: English

Format: Print

36 pages

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Citation:

Macchia, Lucia, and Ashley V. Whillans. "Income Inequality Affects Donations Only for High-Income People Who Feel Financially Insecure and Distrust Others." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-052, October 2019.

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Income Inequality Affects Donations Only for High-Income People Who Feel Financially Insecure and Distrust Others

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