Three Essays on the Economics of Philanthropy
type: CreativeWork
description: This dissertation studies the economics of prosocial behavior. More specifically, I investigate experimentally how prosocial incentives, pledges, and altruistic self-concept affect individuals' prosocial behaviors in three chapters. Chapter 1 studies the role of self-chosen goals in shaping prosocial incentives' motivation on individuals' performance. The prosocial incentive is a way of motivation where workers' payments are associated with an additional reward to the charities. It is now widely accepted by the firms because it helps build the corporate culture, and boosts employee's morale, performance, and job satisfaction. However, recent studies have shown that a larger reward size does not necessarily increase workers' prosocial incentives. To solve this limitation, I implement a self-chosen goal scheme along with the incentives. I design an online experiment in which participants set goals for themselves engaging in real effort tasks. Participants obtain prosocial rewards only when they reach their goals. My results show that workers who receive prosocial incentives improve their performance by setting higher goals and achieving them. Moreover, when provided with the opportunity to receive large rewards, workers who are matched with the charity's mission will set higher goals to motivate themselves further to make additional efforts. My findings suggest prosocial incentives are comparable to monetary incentives in motivating workers within a self-chosen goal scheme. The preferred type of incentive depends on the firm's target and worker's heterogeneity. Chapter 2 investigates experimentally whether pledges with respect to when one volunteer increase volunteering. As shown in previous literature, the effect of pledging on volunteering is ambiguous. On one hand, pledges can boost volunteering as it offers volunteers the option to choose when to help others. On the other hand, pledges open the doors for individuals to find more ways to excuse themselves from havi…
abstract: This dissertation studies the economics of prosocial behavior. More specifically, I investigate experimentally how prosocial incentives, pledges, and altruistic self-concept affect individuals' prosocial behaviors in three chapters. Chapter 1 studies the role of self-chosen goals in shaping prosocial incentives' motivation on individuals' performance. The prosocial incentive is a way of motivation where workers' payments are associated with an additional reward to the charities. It is now widely accepted by the firms because it helps build the corporate culture, and boosts employee's morale, performance, and job satisfaction. However, recent studies have shown that a larger reward size does not necessarily increase workers' prosocial incentives. To solve this limitation, I implement a self-chosen goal scheme along with the incentives. I design an online experiment in which participants set goals for themselves engaging in real effort tasks. Participants obtain prosocial rewards only when they reach their goals. My results show that workers who receive prosocial incentives improve their performance by setting higher goals and achieving them. Moreover, when provided with the opportunity to receive large rewards, workers who are matched with the charity's mission will set higher goals to motivate themselves further to make additional efforts. My findings suggest prosocial incentives are comparable to monetary incentives in motivating workers within a self-chosen goal scheme. The preferred type of incentive depends on the firm's target and worker's heterogeneity. Chapter 2 investigates experimentally whether pledges with respect to when one volunteer increase volunteering. As shown in previous literature, the effect of pledging on volunteering is ambiguous. On one hand, pledges can boost volunteering as it offers volunteers the option to choose when to help others. On the other hand, pledges open the doors for individuals to find more ways to excuse themselves from havi…
author: Su, Yuxin
keywords: altruistic self-concept, experiment, pledging, prosocial behavior, prosocial incentive, volunteering
date published: 2021-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:41:01Z
provider: Claremont Graduate University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Claremont Graduate University