This paper reviews social finance. Venture philanthropy, microfinance, crowdfunding and social impact bonds are financial and social innovations that reshape capital markets, the production of public goods, entrepreneurship and the fundamental principles of financial analysis. In this context,...

The 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act increased the limitation on the tax deductibility of charitable contributions from 50 to 60 percent of adjusted gross income. This note estimates the effect of the share-of-income limitation on giving for the first time. Patterns in giving over time and across...

We study how the U.S. Catholic clergy abuse scandals affected religious participation, religious beliefs, and pro-social behavior. To estimate the causal effects of the scandals on various outcomes, we conduct an event-study analysis that exploits the fine distribution of the scandals over space...

Global mega-trends are rearranging social reality. They affect formal contexts, individual identities, and group dynamics on a scale that seems historically unprecedented. We often look to people in positions of formal authority for the necessary leadership to steer groups and organizations...

An influential result in the literature on charitable giving is that matching subsidies dominate rebate subsidies in raising funds. We investigate whether this result extends to 'unit donation' schemes, a popular alternative form of soliciting donations. There, the donors' choices are about the...

Recent high-profile scandals related to misuse of funding and donations have raised the demand for scrutiny over financial transparency and operational activities of non-profit organizations in developed countries. Our analysis challenges the common practice in the sector of using programme...

Matching schemes, where a party matches the contribution of others, reduce the effective price of a good and aim to foster its demand. We review the empirical literature on the effectiveness of these schemes in the context of public goods, especially in the field of charitable giving. As...