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Charity And Information: Correcting The Failure Of A Disjunctive Social Norm, Robert D. Cooter, Brian Broughman

Robert Cooter

Charitable donations fund social goods that the state and markets undersupply. While some people donate much to charity, most Americans donate little or nothing. Experiments in behavioral economics show that anonymity, not human nature, causes low contributions. Disclosure of each individual’s aggregate conduct is necessary for the effectiveness of any disjunctive social norm, including charity. We propose a public registry where each taxpayer can voluntarily disclose the ratio between his charitable giving and income. The registry will clarify the social norm and increase average donations. We extend our analysis to pro bono legal services where a similar registry would encourage …