Volunteering, Match Quality, and Internet Use

Abstract

We used boosted regression trees to study the interplay between match quality and Internet use of volunteers. In our use of the term, match quality reflects the congruence of volunteers' motives for doing volunteer work and their utility experiences. Using data from an online survey questionnaire of volunteers working for the German Red Cross, we found a positive correlation between match quality and both social-media use and the intensity of volunteering-related Internet use. We used the estimated boosted regression trees to study the relative importance of Internet use and other control variables for match quality, the partial dependence of match quality on Internet use and the control variables, and the interaction of Internet use with the control variables.