Luck and giving

Abstract

This study finds that individuals who consider themselves lucky in finances donate more than individuals who do not consider themselves lucky even after controlling for income, wealth and relevant socio-demographic variables.

Notes

¹ The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) is sponsored by the Federal Reserve Board and the US Department of the Treasury samples. The survey samples a cross-section of US residents to study the financial decisions of households and over-samples wealthy individuals.

² The results are robust to using other reasonable lower limits.

³ The results are robust to dropping the very wealthy in the sample, those in the 90th percentile of the total income distribution. The only noteworthy difference when the very wealthy are excluded from the sample is the coefficient of logPRICE is statistically insignificant.