Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/130333 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 9649
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We investigate whether, why and when prosocial engagement has a causal effect on individual employment opportunities. To this end, a field experiment is conducted in which volunteering activities are randomly assigned to fictitious job applications sent to genuine vacancies. We find that volunteers get one third more interview invitations than non‐volunteers. The volunteering premium is higher for females but invariant with respect to the number of engagements and the private versus public or nonprofit orientation of the job posting firm. As a result, our findings are consistent with the idea that prosocial workers sort themselves into non‐commercial sectors.
Subjects: 
prosocial behaviour
volunteering
labour market
gender gaps
statistical discrimination
sorting
experiments
JEL: 
C93
D64
J24
J71
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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