"Gender differences in altruism" covered by Swedish media

The article "Gender differences in altruism: Evidence from a natural field experiment on matched donations" published in Economics Letters earlier this year is covered by The Swedish newspaper Göteborgs Posten.

What is the study about? Recycling customers in Swedish supermarkets are presented with an option of either keeping or donating their returned deposit by pressing the yellow instead of the green button (see image). The study examines how often men and women decide to donate when the store matches a donation by a factor of 1, 3 or 5. Women respond more to these changes and donate more often than men as the factor increases.

Why is it important? Differences in altruism influences behavioural predictions of several allocations decisions, such as intra-household bargaining, intra-generational transfers such as inheritance distribution and charitable donations. If donations are subsidised, for example, the study suggests that women would increase their donations but men would not.