Giving to Africa and Perceptions of Poverty

Abstract

We conduct a simple experiment in which student participants are invited to give some of the money that they have earned to an international development charity. In different treatments, participants are given different information about the country in which the donation will be spent. The information on the country includes the country’s income per capita and, in some treatments, different possible reasons as to why the country is poor. We find that experimental behaviour depends largely on the characteristics of the participant rather than on the treatment. The most important characteristics are the participant’s intended major subject, level of happiness and the frequency of religious activity.