Is Volunteering Rewarding in Itself?

Arbeitspapier

Volunteering constitutes one of the most important pro-social activities. Following Adam Smith, helping others is the way to higher individual well-being. This view contrasts with the selfish utility maximizer who avoids costs from helping others. The two rival views are studied empirically. We find robust evidence that volunteers are more satisfied with their life than non-volunteers. Causality is addressed taking advantage of a natural experiment: the collapse of East Germany and its infrastructure of volunteering. People who accidentally lost their opportunities for volunteering are compared to people who experienced no change in their volunteer status.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 1045

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers ; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification ; Time Allocation and Labor Supply ; General Welfare; Well-Being
• Subject: happiness ; pro-social behavior ; subjective well-being ; volunteering ; Ehrenamtliche Arbeit ; Altruismus ; Lebensqualität ; Schätzung ; Neue Bundesländer ; Deutschland ; Lebenszufriedenheit

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Meier, Stephan ; Stutzer, Alois
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2004

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/20280
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET