Altruism Toward Groups: The Charitable Provision of Private Goods

Abstract

One form of altruism is the voluntary provision of public goods. Theories of altruism based on the public goods model, however, lead to false predictions of giving only by the very wealthiest members of large groups and of dollar-for-dollar crowding out of private giving by government spending. In this article, donors are assumed to care about the provision of a private good to members of a recipient group. The model is shown to be consistent with widespread giving and less than complete crowding out.