We report the results of a real-donation experiment in which we test the effect on giving to charity of tangible and intangible house and earned money. We also expand the action set, allowing our participants to take from, as well as give to, their charities. In our intangible treatments, the...

This paper investigates the potential effect of allowing donors to target voluntary giving to specific government organizations on government's ability to generate additional revenues. We design a ‘real donation' lab experiment to compare giving to general revenue with donor-targeted giving to...

Creation of empirical knowledge in economics has taken a dramatic turn in the past few decades. One feature of the new research landscape is the nature and extent to which scholars generate data. Today, in nearly every field the experimental approach plays an increasingly crucial role in testing...

This paper revisits the question of framing and the provision of public goods. It also addresses the question, is giving in Dictator Games an expression of altruism or an artefact of experimentation? What is unique about this paper is that we employ a “real donation” lab experiment in a...

This paper revisits the question of “warm glow” vs. „cold prickle” and the provision of public goods. It also addresses the question, is giving in Dictator Games an expression of altruism or an artifact of experimentation? What is unique about this paper is that we employ a “real...

We report results from a multi-period game designed to stimulate feelings of envy. There are a number of important features of our game that distinguish it from previous games used to examine envy. A unique and important feature of our design is that it addresses the two negative effects of...

This paper reports results from a field study comparing the effects of rebates and matching subsidies for charitable contributions. The study was conducted in conjunction with Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota, a religiously affiliated social services charity. The field experiment has three...

Models of social preferences (i.e. inequality aversion), assuming society is defined by a hierarchy based on income or wealth, predict that the poor envy the rich. Reference Group Theory predicts that the poor (rich) envy others from the same social group or class. We report results from a game...