Why do some countries give foreign aid to poorer countries and what is its effect on recipient growth? Many decades of research has not provided definitive answers to either of these questions. One obstacle to answering these linked questions is that unobserved donor motivation may create an...

This study theoretically and empirically examines altruistic and joy-of-giving motivations underlying contributions to charitable activities. The theoretical analysis shows that in an economy with an infinitely large number of donors, impurely altruistic preferences lead to either asymptotically...