Evidence on Need-Sensitive Giving Behavior: An Experimental Approach to the Acknowledgment of Needs

Abstract

We utilize a modified dictator game to analyze whether information about the need of recipients affects dictator giving behavior. Need information is presented as objective information about the recipients' living circumstances (income, public transfers, and travel time to the lab) and subjective information about the recipients' self-assessment of their need (need request). Classifying dictators according to their conditional transfers yields that 139 of the 246 (57%) dictators are need sensitive. The results show that recipient's income and travel time affect dictator giving behavior significantly. Furthermore, dictator giving increases when the need request is supported by the income information (acknowledgment effect).