Defaults and Donations: Evidence from a Field Experiment

Steffen Altmann; Armin Falk; Paul Heidhues; Rajshri  Jayaraman; Marrit Teirlinck

doi:10.1162/rest_a_00774

Defaults and Donations: Evidence from a Field Experiment

Steffen Altmann, Armin Falk, Paul Heidhues, Rajshri Jayaraman, Marrit Teirlinck

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We study the effects of defaults on charitable giving in a large-scale field experiment on an online fundraising platform. We exogenously vary default options along two choice-dimensions—the charitable donation decision, and the “codonation” decision regarding how much to contribute to supporting the platform. We document a strong effect of defaults on individual behavior but, nevertheless, find that aggregate donation levels are unaffected by defaults. In contrast, codonations increase in the default amount. We complement our experimental results with a structural model that investigates whether personalizing defaults based on individuals’ donation histories can increase donation revenues.

Original language	English
Journal	Review of Economics and Statistics
Number of pages	43
ISSN	0034-6535
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_00774
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2019

Keywords

Faculty of Social Sciences
Charitable Giving
Default Options
Online Platforms
Field Experiment

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10.1162/rest_a_00774

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title = "Defaults and Donations: Evidence from a Field Experiment",

abstract = "We study the effects of defaults on charitable giving in a large-scale field experiment on an online fundraising platform. We exogenously vary default options along two choice-dimensions—the charitable donation decision, and the “codonation” decision regarding how much to contribute to supporting the platform. We document a strong effect of defaults on individual behavior but, nevertheless, find that aggregate donation levels are unaffected by defaults. In contrast, codonations increase in the default amount. We complement our experimental results with a structural model that investigates whether personalizing defaults based on individuals{\textquoteright} donation histories can increase donation revenues.",

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author = "Steffen Altmann and Armin Falk and Paul Heidhues and Rajshri Jayaraman and Marrit Teirlinck",

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T2 - Evidence from a Field Experiment

AU - Altmann, Steffen

AU - Falk, Armin

AU - Heidhues, Paul

AU - Jayaraman, Rajshri

AU - Teirlinck, Marrit

PY - 2019/12/1

Y1 - 2019/12/1

N2 - We study the effects of defaults on charitable giving in a large-scale field experiment on an online fundraising platform. We exogenously vary default options along two choice-dimensions—the charitable donation decision, and the “codonation” decision regarding how much to contribute to supporting the platform. We document a strong effect of defaults on individual behavior but, nevertheless, find that aggregate donation levels are unaffected by defaults. In contrast, codonations increase in the default amount. We complement our experimental results with a structural model that investigates whether personalizing defaults based on individuals’ donation histories can increase donation revenues.

AB - We study the effects of defaults on charitable giving in a large-scale field experiment on an online fundraising platform. We exogenously vary default options along two choice-dimensions—the charitable donation decision, and the “codonation” decision regarding how much to contribute to supporting the platform. We document a strong effect of defaults on individual behavior but, nevertheless, find that aggregate donation levels are unaffected by defaults. In contrast, codonations increase in the default amount. We complement our experimental results with a structural model that investigates whether personalizing defaults based on individuals’ donation histories can increase donation revenues.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - Charitable Giving

KW - Default Options

KW - Online Platforms

KW - Field Experiment

U2 - 10.1162/rest_a_00774

DO - 10.1162/rest_a_00774

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0034-6535

JO - Review of Economics and Statistics

JF - Review of Economics and Statistics

ER -

Defaults and Donations: Evidence from a Field Experiment

Abstract

Keywords

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