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What Makes a Donor Donate? A New Marketplace Podcast
(Hemera) In our latest Freakonomics Radio on Marketplace podcast, we look at the economics of charity — specifically, what works (and what doesn’t) when trying to incentivize people to give....
View ArticleDiversity and Charity: An Inverse Relationship?
Our latest Freakonomics Radio on Marketplace podcast, “What Makes Donors Donate?” looks at what works (and what doesn’t) to incentivize people to give. A new NBER working paper studies the relationship...
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To Ask or Not to Ask: Experiments in Charitable Giving
Our recent podcast “What Makes a Donor Donate?” features economist John List, who has concentrated his research on the science of philanthropy. In short, when it comes to convincing people to give,...
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Not Humanly Possible, Is It?
Pat Farmer (Photo: Pole to Pole Run) Close your eyes. Imagine what it would feel like to run a marathon. Now imagine that you’ve run not just one marathon, but two marathons in a single day. Seems...
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John List Explains Why Lotteries Are in Fact a Good Fund-Raising Mechanism
(Photo: Jason Kessenich) We recently ran on a post on a reader’s query about the economics of a 50-50 fund-raiser. John List, the University of Chicago economics-of-charity wizard (related podcast...
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The Social Pressure of Charitable Giving
(Photo: Howard Lake) We recently heard from John List, the economics-of-charity guru, about the use of lotteries in fund-raising. Here now is a new List paper, co-authored with Stefano DellaVigna and...
View ArticleCheating for Charity
New research indicates that people may be more likely to lie when a charity benefits from their dishonesty. A group of researchers led by Alan Lewis at University of Bath investigated this tendency in...
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Free-conomics: A New Marketplace Podcast
(Photo: Ken Hawkins) Our latest Freakonomics Radio on Marketplace podcast is called “Free-conomics.” (You can download/subscribe at iTunes, get the RSS feed, listen via the media player above, or...
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Charitable Giving: Why Fewer Is More
(Photo: Howard Lake) December is the holiday giving season for many, but there are a lot of charities competing for your dollars, and it can be hard to know where they will do the most good. I’ve...
View ArticleAn Economist’s Guide to Year-End Charitable Giving
The end of the year is a giving season for many (I suppose a cynical economist might think tax deductions has something to do with it). Most of us like to make sure we’re making well-researched and...
View ArticleFREAK-est Links
Do customs and postal service discriminate against “atheist” parcels? Now there are wristbands to monitor whether doctors are washing their hands. (HT: R.E. Riker) Dan Ariely is offering a free online...
View ArticleQuestion of the Day: Should I Feel Guilty About Not Supporting Public Radio?
We recently ran a listener survey for Freakonomics Radio. Among the interesting findings: only (or should that be “only”?) 18 percent of the respondents are members of a public-radio station. A reader...
View ArticleShould We All Just Give Cash Directly to the Poor?
Silicon Valley heavyweights like Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes and Google have a new favorite charity: GiveDirectly, an organization that makes direct transfers (via M-Pesa) to poor people in the...
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Products for Charity
(Photo: Jaro Larnos) We bought a box of Anzac biscuits — a very tasty cookie with no eggs or fat, thus not too many calories and easily preserved. The company, Unibic, states on the box that “4% of...
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Charity and the Beauty Effect
(Photo: John Martinez Pavliga) John List and Uri Gneezy have appeared on our blog many times. This guest post is part a series adapted from their new book The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and the...
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Not So Dismal After All
John List and Uri Gneezy have appeared on our blog many times. This guest post is the last in a series adapted from their new book The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics of...
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Charity “Shoppers” vs. Charity Investors
(Photo: Howard Lake) I like Indian food more than sushi. And I like sushi more than Italian food. When going out for dinner and choosing which to eat, does this mean I always choose Indian? Of course...
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Spin for Good
(Photo: benketaro) Americans love to gamble, as evidenced by the ubiquity of lotteries, the growing number of local casinos, and the remarkable success of Las Vegas. One place Americans can’t legally...
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