Exploring the Nexus between Culture, Values, Institutions, Happiness and Philanthropy: A Global Evidence

Maham Mushtaq,Danish Ahmed Siddiqui

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3681246

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to investigate the impact of culture, values, institutions, and happiness on the world’s philanthropy. Culture is measured by Hofstede index (i.e. individualism-collectivism, masculinity-femininity, long and short-run orientation, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, and indulgence-restraint). The measurement of value is WVS (World Value Survey) and it consists of the emotion of happiness, active/ inactive member of a church or religious organization, important in life; religion, confidence in charitable/ humanitarian organization, and active/ inactive membership of charitable/ humanitarian organization. Institutions are measured by WGI (World Governance Indicators) and it consists of corruption, regulatory quality, accountability and voice, rule of law, political stability and government effectiveness, the sub-variables of happiness (index) are social support, freedom to take decisions and generosity and world’s philanthropy is measured by CAF (Charitable Aid Foundation) world giving index. We have gathered panel data (from the period 2010 to 2014) of CAF index, happiness index, and WGI of 62 countries and cross-sectional data of CAF index, Hofstede index, WGI, happiness index, and WVS of 24 countries. The result (of panel data) shows that there is a significant relation of WGI, social support, and freedom of choice with CAF index whereas there is an insignificant connection between generosity and CAF index. The findings (of cross-sectional data of all factors combined) shows that there is a relation of the Hofstede index and happiness index with the CAF index while there is no linkage of WGI and WVS with the CAF index. The study suggests that charitable organizations should personify their value in order to build trust among the public. Countries should improve their governance because this will lead to equality and by doing this countries will also manage their resources efficiently and effectively.

Highlights

1.1 Background Over the past decades, the part that philanthropy played in strengthening civilization and addressing challenges that were faced by a human had received great attention
The results revealed that individualism-collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, and power distance significantly influenced happiness score, on the other hand, short and long-run orientation and masculinity-femininity had an insignificant relation with happiness score and the mean of happiness score varies from continent to continent but at the global level it does not fluctuate
This paper examines the effect of value, culture, happiness, and institution on philanthropy

Summary

Introduction

1.1 Background Over the past decades, the part that philanthropy played in strengthening civilization and addressing challenges that were faced by a human had received great attention. One problem that affects philanthropy of the world was that at the state level a complex group of socio-cultural, economic, administrative and political factors collectively form the environment for charity. This growing environment generates a problem in developing a sufficient construct in order to evaluate the enabling situations domestically as well as internationally (Garcia et al, 2017). Philanthropic activities were revealed by monetary contributions. This kind of activity was manifested with aid provided in the shape of time, money and other sorts of resources to philanthropy. Charitable organizations are perhaps largely recognized firms inside the not for profit division (Hassan et al, 2018)

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