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An Exploratory Analysis of Cross-National Variations in Prosocial Behaviors

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Abstract

Numerous past studies explore factors that drive prosocial behaviors. Most studies focus on individual and organizational factors; there is less research exploring cross-national variations in prosocial behaviors. This study addresses this gap and analyzes cross-national variations in prosocial behaviors utilizing a 117-country dataset from the Charities Aid Foundation World Giving Index to estimate Tobit models explaining cross-national variations in donating money, volunteering time, and helping a stranger. We find evidence that economic, political, and to a lesser extent, cultural theories play a role in explaining cross-national variations in prosocial behaviors.

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Notes

  1. These prosocial behaviors comprise three pillars of voluntary action according to Putnam 2000 and Verba, Schlozman and Brady 1995. Other types of prosocial behaviors are viewed as complementary to these three, and are less commonly studied.

  2. An exception is Suzuki (2020), who examined volunteering time, and found lower levels of government spending to be positively associated with volunteering.

  3. Wiepking and Handy (2015) also propose two additional characteristics of the nonprofit sector that may impact prosocial behavior: regulation of the nonprofit sector, and level of fundraising professionalism in the nonprofit sector. Data limitations do not allow us to include country-level indicators for regulation of the nonprofit sector or level of fundraising professionalism in our models. However, for recent research on the institutional context for philanthropy, see Wiepking et al., 2021.

  4. Due to space limitations, the correlation matrix in not included here, but is available upon request.

  5. The seven questions in the index include:

    (1) Does the country have a tax system in place? (Possible points: 0).

    (2) If yes to 1, then does the country provide tax exemption for non-profits? (Possible points: 2).

    (3) If yes to 2, then does the country provide reporting requirements for non-profits? (Possible points: 1).

    (4) If yes to 3, then are those reporting requirements sensitive to the size of organizations? (Possible points: 1).

    (5) If yes to 1, are there tax incentives in place to encourage philanthropy? (Possible points: 6).

    (6) If yes to 5, then do individuals and corporations have different incentives? (Possible points: 0).

    (7) Finally, does there exist an “estate tax” exempt or some equivalent mechanism that encourages the creation of donor institutions? (Possible points: 1).

  6. It is also important to acknowledge that all data and methods have strengths and weaknesses, and the work of Wiepking et al (2021) and De Wit et al. (2018) must also be interpreted with caution due to the low number of countries in the data set (19), differences in data collection across countries, and influence of certain countries.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, Auburn University, 7080 Haley Center, Auburn, AL, 36849, USA

    Kelly Krawczyk & Brian Ezeonu

  2. Ford Foundation, PO Box 2368, Lagos, Nigeria

    Dabesaki Mac-Ikemenjima

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  1. Kelly Krawczyk
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Correspondence to Kelly Krawczyk.

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Krawczyk, K., Ezeonu, B. & Mac-Ikemenjima, D. An Exploratory Analysis of Cross-National Variations in Prosocial Behaviors. Voluntas 34, 1068–1080 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-022-00525-z

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