AFS Annual Meeting 2019

Using the 2014 wave of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and a Heckman selection model, this paper examines the relationship between married household bargaining power and charitable giving. This paper finds that a household in which the husband’s age is greater than his wife’s age has a higher probability of donating money to charity compared to a household in which the wife is older than her husband. Similarly, a household in which the husband’s education is greater than his wife’s has a higher probability of charitable giving compared to a household in which the wife has a higher degree than her husband. Additionally, this study finds that both spouses’ educations have a significant influence on the probability and the amount of charitable giving. A higher level of education is associated with a higher incidence of charitable giving and the amount of charitable giving. Lastly, increased income and wealth also increase both the probability and amount of charitable giving, all else equal. 

Author(s): Yi (Bessie) Liu, Russell James III