Impure Altruism

Title:

Giving With Impure Altruism:Applications to Charity and Rechardian Equivalance

Author:

James Andreoni

Reference:

Andreoni. James(1989),"Giving With Impure Altruism:Applications to Charity and Rechardian Equivalance",Journel of Political Economy, 6(97):1447-1458

Abstract:

Models of giving have often been based on altruism. Examples include Charity and intergenerational transfers. The literatures on both subjects have centered around neutrality hypotheses: charity is subject to complete crowding out, while integenerational transfers are subject to Richardian equivalance. This paper formally develops a model of giving in which altruism is not “pure”. In particular, people are assumed to get a “warm glow” from giving. Contrary to the previous literature, this model generates identifiable comparative statics result that show that crowding out of charity is incomplete and that government debt will have Keynesian effects.