Why do people work in the voluntary sector? Is the sector distinct, with characteristics that differentiate it from the private and public sectors? Is it important to consider the existence of the so-called ‘third sector’ when analysing behaviour in the labour market? Is altruism really an...

In the first chapter of this dissertation, I estimate the wage elasticity of working in the day labor market in rural Malawi using panel data from a unique field experiment. Though employment in daily wage markets is important to individuals and governments in developing countries, there is...

This thesis consists of studies in the field of experimental economics. The first two chapters of the thesis deal with the issue of subject selection in Cournot Oligopoly experiments. In particular, chapter 1 presents a study which was designed to test whether a predominant personality inventory...

Government

Media coverage of humanitarian crises is widely believed to influence charitable giving, yet this assertion has received little empirical scrutiny. Using Internet donations after the 2004 tsunami as a case study, we show that media coverage of disasters has a dramatic impact on donations to...

This dissertation is a collection of three essays in the fields of environmental and public economics. The first essay assesses the effect of government spending on charitable donations to environmental causes. Using a theoretical model, I solve for changes in private donations due to increased...

Data are compiled from the tax records of 29 major environmental organizations for the period 1980-1994 to identify factors that influence voluntary contributions. I examine the effects of organizational characteristics, such as fundraising expenditures and alternative sources of revenue, along...

This paper investigates the dynamic relation between callers' socialties and their wireless phone service consumption. We construct a largepair-level panel dataset with information on the number of each pair'scommon contacts, calling activities, prices, and each caller'scharacteristics over a...