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Dissertation Information for Bruce R. Kingma

NAME:
- Bruce R. Kingma

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Economics

SCHOOL:
- University of Rochester (USA) (1989)

ADVISORS:
- None

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- None

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Not_Inspected

Title: Charitable contributions: The pure public good model and the alternatives

Abstract: In the traditional theory of charitable contributions, charity is modeled as a pure public good (Becker (1974), Hochman and Rogers (1977), et al.). In the pure public good model individuals contribute to a charity--such as public television, muscular dystrophy research or aid for the poor--from which every agent derives utility without rivalry or exclusion.

Several authors (Sugden (1984, 1985), Andreoni (1988), et al.) have criticized the pure public good model of charity for its failure to explain the empirical regularity that contributors make significant contributions to charity even in large populations. One would expect that in a pure public good model, agents would decrease their contributions and free ride on the generosity of others. As a result of this failure of the pure public good model, economists have developed several alternative models of charity (Feldstein (1980), Andreoni (1985), Kingma (1987)). However, economists have not reached a consensus as to which of these models is the most appropriate model of charity.

This dissertation examines the pure public good model of charity and the alternative models. Chapter two rigorously proves some of the criticisms of the pure public good model. In particular, chapter two proves that in the pure public good model the sum of all contributions has a finite limit and each agent decreases his contribution to an insignificant level as the number of contributing agents increases. Chapter two also proves that these results are only true for a given set of utility functions. The last section of chapter two shows the set of utility functions for which the empirical of the pure public good model are consistent with the empirical regularities of charity.

Chapter three presents three alternative models of charity, shows the comparative statics on each model and compares the empirical predictions of these models with those of the pure public good model.

In order to distinguish which is the best model of charity chapter four examines the previous empirical literature on charitable contributions and corrects many of the inherent flaws of previous authors. The previous empirical literature has focused on two issues; estimating the income and price elasticities of contributions and estimating the extent to which government funding crowded out private contributions. Chapter four corrects the flaws of earlier research and presents unique empirical evidence that the positive externality or impure altruist model is the correct model of charitable contributions.

MPACT Scores for Bruce R. Kingma

A = 1
C = 3
A+C = 4
T = 1
G = 1
W = 1
TD = 1
TA = 0
calculated 2012-08-15 20:07:48

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