Currently Submitted to VOLUNTAS[ see current submissions
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TITLE:
Charity and Gift Exchange in Pakistan
ABSTRACT:
Researchers have established that gift exchange is an important explanation for efficiency wages. Since gift exchange is a culture dependent phenomenon, we sought to replicate these findings in Pakistan. We chose to study gift exchange via a field experiment in the simple setting of charitable donations in a door to door campaign. Significant differences in outcomes were observed, suggesting a rejection of the simple gift exchange mechanism, which involves roughly equal exchanges over short time intervals. A plausible alternative explanation for our results may be complex gift exchange, which works over longer intervals.
REFERENCE:
Zaman, Asad; Saima Mahmood,"Charity and Gift Exchange in Pakistan: Links to CURRENT version at SSRN paper attached below is old draft. .