I study the relationship between changes in community needs and the supply of voluntary work. I present basic theoretical considerations, which suggest that the relationship between voluntary work and an increase in community needs is ambiguous. Then, I test the relationship empirically by proxying community needs with the number of needy people, i.e., refugees, in a county, and by exploiting the quasi-random allocation of refugees within Germany. I find that doubling the number of refugees increases the probability of volunteering by about 2 percentage points. These estimates imply that 1.45 million people additionally volunteered during the refugee crisis, i.e., more than one person per refugee.

Do community needs affect the decision to volunteer? The case of refugees in Germany

Tassi, Annalisa
2024-01-01

Abstract

I study the relationship between changes in community needs and the supply of voluntary work. I present basic theoretical considerations, which suggest that the relationship between voluntary work and an increase in community needs is ambiguous. Then, I test the relationship empirically by proxying community needs with the number of needy people, i.e., refugees, in a county, and by exploiting the quasi-random allocation of refugees within Germany. I find that doubling the number of refugees increases the probability of volunteering by about 2 percentage points. These estimates imply that 1.45 million people additionally volunteered during the refugee crisis, i.e., more than one person per refugee.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11582/354970
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