Class Matters: Philanthropy of US-American households

Abstract

This paper studies the determinants of US households’ charitable donations. The analysis is based on data from the Survey of Consumer Finance (SCF) of the year 2016. It becomes apparent that households from lower income brackets donate a larger share of their income as well as their wealth to charity compared to richer households. However, richer households contribute more to charitable causes in absolute terms, thus gaining more influence on the supply of social, cultural and educational services while facing a comparatively lower financial burden. In terms of the functional distribution, we find that capitalist households amount for 67 % of total donations, even though they make up for only 11 % of all households. While wage-dependent households contribute a lower share of their income, they donate a higher share of their wealth compared to capitalist households.