Defaults and Donations: Evidence from a Field Experiment

This paper uses a field experiment to study the effects of default settings on an online charitable giving platform. This experiment provided users with varying default values of donations to organizations and of “co-donations” to the platform. The paper finds that defaults affected individual donations values but not aggregate donation levels, although co-donations increased in the default co-donation rate.

Abstract and Citation

Steffan Altmann, Armin Falk, Paul Heidhues, Rajshri Jayaraman, and Marrit Teirlinck. 2019. Review of Economics and Statistics 101 (5): 808–826.

Abstract

We study the effects of defaults on charitable giving in a large-scale field experiment on an online fundraising platform. We exogenously vary default options along two choice dimensions: the charitable donation decision and the “co-donation” decision regarding how much to contribute to supporting the platform. We document a strong effect of defaults on individual behavior but nevertheless find that aggregate donation levels are unaffected by defaults. In contrast, co-donations increase in the default amount. We complement our experimental results with a structural model that investigates whether personalizing defaults based on individuals' donation histories can increase donation revenues.

Publication Link

https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article-abstract/101/5/808/58537/Defaults-and-Donations-Evidence-from-a-Field?redirectedFrom=fulltext