Does online salience predict charitable giving? Evidence from SMS text donations

Perroni, Carlo; Scharf, Kimberley; Talavera, Oleksandr; Vi, Linh

Abstract

We explore the link between online salience and charitable donations. Using a unique dataset on phone text donations that includes detailed information on the timing of cash gifts to charities, we link donations to time variation in online searches for words that appear in those charities’ mission statements. The results suggest that an increase in the online salience of the activities pursued by different charities affects the number and volume of donations made to those charities and to charities that pursue different goals. We uncover evidence of positive “own-salience” effects and negative “cross-salience” effects on donations.

Citation

Perroni, C., Scharf, K., Talavera, O., & Vi, L. (2022). Does online salience predict charitable giving? Evidence from SMS text donations. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 197, 134-149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2022.02.015

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 14, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Mar 18, 2022
• Publication Date: May 1, 2022
• Deposit Date: Oct 29, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 30, 2024
• Journal: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
• Print ISSN: 0167-2681
• Electronic ISSN: 2328-7616
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 197
• Pages: 134-149
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2022.02.015
• Keywords: Charitable donations, Online search, News shocks
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/41136488
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268122000622?via%3Dihub