Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/180284 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 7022
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
Allowing for a free choice of the recipient’s gender in a dictator game (N = 508), we find that women show a substantial gender biased towards females. Adding a charity recipient to the possible choices, the charity becomes the primary recipient and overall transfers increase. Yet, conditioning on transfers to fellow students the gender bias of women remains. Moreover, we find that women tend more towards giving half the endowment while men tend more towards “all or nothing.” The literature on cognitive dissonance (the feeling of distress once we act against our internalised values) emphasises the importance of voluntary choice for dissonance effects to take hold. Accordingly, we interpret our results as hinting at an important detail regarding the ongoing debate about gender differences in altruistic giving: primary differences may not be found in the amount of transfers made but rather in the choice of the beneficiary’s gender.
Subjects: 
dictator game
gender differences
voluntary choice
charitable giving
JEL: 
C91
D64
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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