In the framework of the 3E seminar series on the topic of Experiments, Ethics and Economics, Prof. Stefan Traub held the lecture “Evidence on Need-sensitive Giving Behavior: An Experimental Approach to the Acknowledgment of Needs » on 27 April 2022.
Professor Traub utilized a modified dictator game to analyze whether information about the need of recipients affects dictator giving behavior. In an laboratory experiment, need information was presented as objective information about the recipients’ living circumstances (income, public transfers, and travel time to the lab) and subjective information about the recipients’ self-assessment of their need (« need request »). Classifying dictators according to their conditional transfers yielded that 139 of the 246 (57%) dictators were need sensitive. The results showed that recipients’ income and travel time affected dictator giving behavior significantly. Furthermore, dictator giving increased when the need request was supported by the income information.