Venue: The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, 1 Towerview Drive, Durham, NC 27708-0120

 

Presentation

Rational Altruism: Evidence from Blood Donors

Authors: Nicola Lacetera (Case Western Reserve University); Mario Macis (University of Michigan)

Presenter: Mario Macis (University of Michigan)

Discussant: Christopher Carpenter (University of California, Irvine)

Session: Public Health

Room: Classroom G

When: Tuesday 8:30 a.m. - 10 a.m.

Whether altruistic behavior is affected by extrinsic incentives is a central and open question that carries important welfare implications. This paper analyzes the effects of a legislative provision that grants a one-day paid leave of absence to blood donors who are employees in Italy, and exploits a series of additional institutional features that lead to donating in different days of the week having different economic advantages for different classes of donors.

The analysis is based on a unique longitudinal database with the complete donation histories of the entire population of donors in an Italian town. We find that economic considerations do affect blood donation decisions, as donors choose their donation dates and frequency in a way that maximizes the economic returns out of their activity, and do not seem to refrain from donating when material rewards are higher. Adopting a difference-in-differences methodology, we also estimate that the policy leads donors-employees to make one extra donation per year. We discuss the implications of our findings for policies aimed at increasing the supply of blood.