Abstract

SOCIAL CAPITAL AND PRIVATE PHILANTHROPY

Amornrat Apinunmahakul and Rose Anne Devlin

This paper explores the relationship between social capital, public goods and charitable giving by expanding upon the basic voluntary provision framework to include social capital as a factor influencing the value placed on public goods by each individual. We then use this model to inform an econometric analysis of the impact of social capital on gifts of time and money. The empirical investigation uses the Canadian National Survey of Giving, Volunteering, and Participating (NSGVP)data set which contains detailed responses regarding individuals philanthropic, civic, and other endeavours over the 12 month period November 1, 1996 to October 31, 1997. It provides a rich source of data on a broad array of household and individual characteristics, statistically representing the Canadian population aged 15 or older. We use six measures of social capital: religiosity, whether the individual voted in the last election, length of residence in current abode, whether the individual is an immigrant, the population size of the community in which they reside, and how much television the individual watches per week. The results indicate that social capital clearly matters when it comes to private philanthropy. Encouraging social capital development, therefore, will result in an increase in private giving to charities.

Bio

Amornrat Apinunmahakul is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Windsor.

Rose Anne Devlin is an associate professor of economics at the University of Ottawa

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