Volunteer labor supply : evidence from panel study of income dynamics (PSID)

In this thesis, we present an analysis of determinants of the supply of volunteer labor and discuss the different motives that influence using the survey of Center on Philanthropy Panel Data. We find that; schooling, religion, health conditions, socio-economic environment, presence of children in the family union and marital status affect both the decision of the participant and the hours volunteered. Previous literature used cross-sectional data and found different results on the effect of wage and income on volunteer labor. These differences can be due to the implications of different motives of volunteer labor supply but they can also be a result of the omitted individual unobservable. This study uses first difference method to solve this problem of unobserved heterogeneity and obtain unbiased estimates. In addition we analyze the relationship between money and time donation, estimate these decisions jointly and conclude that they are complements.