Charitable donations are more responsive to stock market booms than busts

List, John A.; Peysakhovich, Yana

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Charitable donations are more responsive to stock market booms than busts

Date

2011

Authors

List, John A.

Peysakhovich, Yana

Abstract

This paper examines aggregate time series data on individual charitable donations from 1968 to 2007. We find that changes in individual giving show an asymmetric response to changes in the S&P 500: individuals are more responsive to stock market upturns than downturns.