Charitable Giving by the Poor a Field Experiment on Matching and Distance to Charitable Output in Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

Previous studies of charitable giving have focused on middle or higher income earners in Western countries, neglecting the poor. Despite this focus, the lowest income groups are often shown to contribute substantial shares of their income to charitable causes. In a large-scale natural field experiment with over 180,000 clients of a micro-lending company in Kyrgyzstan, we study charitable giving by a population that is much poorer relative to the typical donors that have been studied so far. In a 2x2 design, we explore two main hypotheses about giving by the poor: (i) that they are more price sensitive and (ii) that they care about their proximity to the charitable project. We find evidence in favor of the former hypothesis but not of the latter.