Abstract:

This paper analyzes the influence of selected socioeconomic factors on prosocial economic preferences with special attention to religiosity and religion. We examine whether particular socio-economic characteristics (gender, age, income, regular income, education, religion, and religiosity) have a significant effect on prosocial economic preferences, represented by the willingness to donate to a beggar, the amount of the donation, willingness to donate more to a child beggar, the amount of the donation to a child beggar, and participation in charity events. We run a questionnaire survey, and we test individual effects on a sample of 181 observations using graphical analysis and non-parametric tests. We find that both religiosity and religion significantly influence prosocial economic preferences, but the effects of religiosity are broader. The other significant drivers of prosocial economic preferences include socioeconomic characteristics of participants regular income, and to a lesser extent age and gender.