Narrow Results

Using data from a nationwide donation program and a follow-up survey, this paper examines how geographic distance between donors and recipients and the capability to give measured by donors’ income affect the amount of charitable giving (conditioned on having given). We find that an increase in geographic distance significantly reduces donation amounts for 15% of the donors. The sensitivity of donation to distance decreases with total monthly disposable income for 62% of the donors. We further find that donation amounts increase with donors’ income for 4% of the donors when evaluating at the mean or median distance.

This study explores class differences in charitable giving and volunteering in three megacities in China. It investigates whether the association between social class and these altruistic behaviors varies within the middle class when we differentiate the core middle class from the semi-core middle class and the marginal middle class. The results show class disparity in both charitable giving and volunteering and indicate differences within the middle class. There is evidence in support of the mediation effect of civic engagement on the association between social class and pro-social behaviors, which is particularly evident among the core middle class. Our empirical evidence also points to the influence of the quality of social networks on pro-social behaviors. The study contributes new empirical evidence to the existing literature on altruistic behaviors in China and improves our understanding of the role of social capital in this regard of social life.