Union Membership and Charitable Giving in the United States

Using U.S. panel data from 2001–2011, the authors examine general differences in charitable giving between union members, free-riders, and the nonunionized. Results indicate that union members are more likely to give and to give more to charity relative to the nonunionized, whereas free-riders are the least generous. Similar effects are found when examining the question of who joins a union or who becomes a free-rider: joining a union positively affects charitable giving, while becoming a free-rider makes individuals’ behavior less charitable. Evidence also suggests that the positive effect of union membership on giving does not diminish over time. Taken together, these results provide new evidence that union membership generates civic engagement in the form of charitable behavior; results also suggest the need to further investigate the civic behavior of free-riders.

作者利用2001年至2011年的美国面板数据，研究了工会成员、搭便车者和未加入工会者在慈善捐赠方面的总体差异。结果表明，与未加入工会者相比，工会成员更有可能进行捐赠，且向慈善机构捐赠的金额更多，而搭便车者是最不慷慨的。在研究谁会加入工会或谁会成为搭便车者这一问题时，也发现了类似的影响：加入工会对慈善捐赠有积极影响，而成为搭便车者会使个人的行为变得不那么慈善。还有证据表明，工会成员身份对捐赠的积极影响不会随着时间的推移而减弱。综上所述，这些结果提供了新的证据，表明工会成员身份以慈善行为的形式产生了公民参与；结果还表明有必要进一步研究搭便车者的公民行为。