Women donate less to charity than men in some contexts

UChicago News, May 24, 2013

Given the chance, women are more likely than men to opt out of a request to give a charitable donation, a group of economists have found.

The issue of which gender is more generous has been debated for years. A new field experiment conducted by scholars at the University of Chicago and University of California, Berkeley shows that when it’s easy to avoid making a donation, such as not responding to a door-to-door solicitor, women are less likely than men to give.

The results of the study are published in the article, “The Importance of Being Marginal: Gender Differences in Generosity,” in the May issue of the American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings.