Gender differences (and prestige effects) in charitable giving : experimental evidence from Singapore.

Abstract

In Economics, the term Homo economicus has always been assumed to be gender-neutral. Increasingly, however, gender differences have been observed in a variety of domains. This has attracted the attention of many economists, who have realized that these differences could have serious implications for economic theory. Our paper seeks to investigate gender differences in charitable giving behaviour through laboratory experiments conducted at Nanyang Technological University. We find that gender differences are persistent, with females exhibiting more altruistic behaviour than men in general. This reaffirms what psychologists and evolutionary biologists have alleged all along.