We use panel data on charitable donations to analyze how the philanthropic behavior of the Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) compares to that of earlier generations. On the basis of a multivariate analysis with a rich set of economic and demographic variables, we find that conditional on making a gift, one cannot reject the hypothesis that the Millennials donate more than members of earlier generations. However, Millennials are somewhat less likely to make any donations at all than their generational predecessors. Our findings suggest a more nuanced view of the Millennials’ prosocial behavior than is suggested in popular accounts.
Authors
- Acknowledgements & Disclosure
- We are grateful to Princeton’s Griswold Center for Economic Policy Research for funding this project. We are also grateful to Will Dobbie, Henry Farber, Jonathan Meer and Ulrich Mueller for useful comments, and Mark Ottoni-Wilhelm for assistance in accessing the Center on Philanthropy Panel Study. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
- DOI
- http://dx.doi.org/10.3386/w25813
- Published in
- United States of America
