Productive Roles in an Older Society (1986) / Chapter Skim
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The Economics of Volunteerism: A Review
The Economics of Volunteerism: A Review
Pages 23-50
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From page 23... ...
To illustrate: volunteer activities range from a neighbor helping a neighbor, to a group of parents organizing to Carol Jusenius Romero is staff economist at the National Commission for Employment Policy, Washington, D.C.
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From page 24... ...
would enjoy doing the work; fee} needed." Almost 25 percent volunteered because a child, relative, or friend was involved, and 11 percent reported that they wanted work experience. Generally, motivating forces include children, relatives, and friends; religious beliefs; political or social concerns; personal history or interest in the activity; social pressures; and a desire to keep busy, fee]
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From page 25... ...
The first presents data on Americans' unpaid work for formal volunteer organizations; it provides a backdrop to the analyses that follow. The next section reviews a number of economic analyses of this type of volunteer ing to determine how the motivation to volunteer has been ana
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From page 26... ...
By 1981, participation in volunteer activities had risen to 28 percent among women and 30 percent among men.2 Although these figures may suggest a fairly widespread involvement in volunteer activities among Americans, a few cautions are in order. First, the proportions are small compared to the percentages of men and women who are either working or looking for work (77 percent of men and 53 percent of women are currently in the work force)
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From page 27... ...
Still, these data do illustrate the broad range of volunteer activities and the fact that different activities seem to appeal to different types of people. Formal volunteer activities range from the PTA to soup kitchens to political and social causes.
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From page 28... ...
The empirical tests typically some form of regression analysis seek to disentangle the various determinants of people's actions. For example, a text might ask how parents' participation in volunteer activities is influenced by the presence of children in the family, while simultaneously taking into account the parents' educational levels, incomes, and work patterns.
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From page 29... ...
the average comparable market wage of the volunteer work that was done (a measure of the skill content of the activity)
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From page 30... ...
Because of these limitations, it is impossible to state with certainty that volunteerism is used by women as a vehicle for easing (rejentry into the Job market. In the second article, Menchik and Weisbrod tested volunteerism as a form of investment by positing that people may volunteer because it "raises one's future income by providing work experience and potentially valuable contacts."~5 An alternative hypothesis was also posed: People may consider volunteer time to be a type of consumer good, something to be enjoyed or consumed.
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From page 31... ...
By contrast, if people view volunteerism as a form of investment, a positive relationship between wages and volunteerism would be expected. The reasoning is as follows: "If those with greater ability to benefit from volunteer work also earn more per hour in the absence of volunteer work, we have a situation in which higher wage workers may volunteer more hours than lower wage workers...." The results of the study indicated that the relationship between wages and hours of volunteerism is positive, which is consistent with the hypothesis that volunteerism is a form of investment.
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From page 32... ...
For example, over its life cycle a family will generally be willing to have the woman spend proportionately more time working full- or part-time at home, since men are typically more productive in the sense of earning more in the job market than in home work. Including volunteerism as a way people may spend their time required the addition of detail to this model.
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From page 33... ...
Entering the job market or raising children typically requires a substantial time commitment on the part of household members. Also, the lack of flexibility usually found in the number and timing of hours of paid employment and the continual nature of child care make these decisions more complex.
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From page 34... ...
The data used to address these questions were collected in the National Longitudinal Surveys of older men and older women.~9 For the men, there was one dependent variable: whether or not they volunteered in 1978. The women's data permitted differentiating among types of volunteer activities.
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From page 35... ...
Finally, the amount of time women work throughout the year and during any given week does not appear to influence their participation in social welfare or civic activities. Specific results on the retirement issues indicated that policies affecting the amount of time people work are likely to have different effects on the participation of men and women in volunteer activities.
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From page 36... ...
Also, it would be useful to explore why several factors seem to have different ejects on the participation of women in the various volunteer activities. For instance, is volunteer time more flexible in social welfare activities so that people do not need to trade off paid employment to participate?
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From page 37... ...
To test for the possibility of government crowding out volunteerism, Menchik and Weisbrod included an independent variable in the regression: per capita state and local government expenditures in different program areas in the state where the individual lived. The results on the crowding out issue were mixed.
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From page 38... ...
Two focus on the individual volunteers: descriptive data on the nature and extent of people's participation in volunteer activities and analyses of their motivations to volunteer. The third category concerns volunteer organizations and
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From page 39... ...
. Several data sources give an empirical content to this picture: for example, the 1973 Survey of Giving, the 1981 Gallup survey, and the National Longitudinal Surveys.
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From page 40... ...
Detailed information on the timing of volunteerism in the form of unpaid labor specifically would improve estimates of the extent people trade off paid employment, homework, and leisure for volunteerism. Finally, it has been mentioned that people are remunerated in different ways for their volunteering.
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From page 41... ...
Some of the issues raised here could be investigated using the existing National Longitudinal Surveys cohort of older women. In 1974, 1976, and 1979, these women were asked a series of questions about their participation in formal volunteer organizations the type of activity, the number of weeks per year and hours per week volunteered, and the type of positions held.
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From page 42... ...
Also, casual observation suggests a greater willingness among people to do volunteer work for short, concentrated periods of time (such as in an emergency or during the holiday season) than for long, sustained periods.
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From page 43... ...
One research result cited earlier was that the participation of women in the work force does not affect the likelihood that they will volunteer for social welfare or civic activities. This finding, which takes a cross-sectional view, is somewhat surprising; it goes against conventional wisdom.
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From page 44... ...
In the past many activities were carried out on an informal, sometimes ad hoc, basis. Some of these same activities lending books and putting out fires, for example-are now handled within formal, organized systems (although informal volunteering is still with us; especially in times of emergency, people continue to band together, almost as a mutual insurance policy)
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From page 45... ...
A final broad area of research is the way in which the voluntary sector as a whole operates and the role it plays in the total economy.24 On the one hand are social needs, and on the other freedom of choice among people to volunteer however they wish. It may be possible to rely upon these volunteers only for some social goals; in other areas, government expenditures and paid workers may be necessary.
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From page 46... ...
When high prices occur, more goods are supplied than may be demanded; in response, the supply declines and prices fall until an equilibrium price and quantity are established between those who demand goods and those who supply them. Because there is no mechanism equivalent to a price system for regulating supply and demand within the voluntary sector, it is difficult to determine whether too little or too much of an activity is being supplied relative to demand (e.g., Are too many or too few Girl Scout cookies being solder.
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From page 47... ...
The ways in which volunteers and volunteer organizations can, and will, respond to these changes are not really known. (For example, there is an expectation-or perhaps more accurately, a hope that older, retired people will become a major source of volunteers.
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From page 48... ...
. The results of studies of these other independent variables indicated that women who identify with a religion and live in rural areas are likely to do more volunteer work than those who do not identify with a religion and live in urban areas.
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From page 49... ...
11. Other independent variables included measures of the population size of the person's place of residence; presence and age of children; the individual's age, sex, marital status, and income from other sources (such as interest and dividends)
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From page 50... ...
Also, for empirical estimates of the size of the voluntary sector, see the Weisbrod and Long paper, others in that volume, and Burton A Weisbrod, "Assets and Employment in the Nonprofit Sector," Public Finance Quarterly 10, no.
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