Eleanor Brown - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Eleanor Brown

Research paper thumbnail of Assessing the value of volunteer activity

One standard way to convert estimates of time volunteered into estimates of the dollar value of v... more One standard way to convert estimates of time volunteered into estimates of the dollar value of volunteered time is to multiply estimated hours by the average hourly compensation rate for paid labor. Economic theory suggests an alternative valuation strategy that acknowledges the importance of taxes, the provision of volunteer-assisted services at lessthan-market prices, and the value of volunteer experiences captured by volunteers themselves. One conclusion is that the standard estimate overstates the value of volunteering to the recipients of volunteer-assisted services but understates the overall value of volunteering when the gains accruing to volunteers themselves are included. Note: This article is a revision of one presented at the 26th annual conference of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action, Indianapolis, Indiana, December 4-6, 1997. I gratefully acknowledge research support from the National Commission on Philanthropy and Civic Renewal. I would like to thank Matthew Hamilton, Paul Schervish, and, especially, John Havens for helping me to understand the Independent Sector data. I alone am responsible for all shortcomings of the views and analysis presented herein.

Research paper thumbnail of Giving in the United States: Generous Philanthropy in a Classic Liberal Regime

The Palgrave Handbook of Global Philanthropy, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of Altruism Towards Groups: The Charitable Provision of Private Goods

Research paper thumbnail of Readings, issues, and questions in public finance

Research paper thumbnail of Toward an Economics of Stewardship: Family Failure and the Theory of the Nonprofit Sector

ABSTRACT Not all persons are capable of effectively conducting their lives in a way consistent wi... more ABSTRACT Not all persons are capable of effectively conducting their lives in a way consistent with the pursuit of their own well being. A stewardship relationship exists when one person (the steward) is given authority to make decisions on behalf of and not at the behest of another (the ward) whose decision making capacity has been judged to lack sufficient congruence with some external standard of his or her well being. Effective stewardship is seen to require information sets relevant to the pursuit of the ward's well being, and ward-regarding behavior. Further, having abridged wards' rights in pursuit of their well being, the government must be able to monitor stewardship. The important economic function of families as units of resource redistribution suggests that they may in general provide the appropriate institution for the provision of stewardship, but data caution that family failure, in the sense of failing to effect a resource distribution that adequately pursues the well being of all of its members, is a substantial cause for concern. The structure of nonprofit firms is seen to be well suited to the provision of stewardship; besides well-known cases in which the existence of the nonprofit sector is seen as a corrective for instances of market failure and of government failure, the case of stewardship adds amelioration of family failure as a raison d'être of the nonprofit sector.

Research paper thumbnail of Donors, Ideologues, and Bureaucrats: The Principal-Agent Relationship between Government and the Nonprofit Sector

... 1971. Bureaucracy and Representative Government. Chicago: Aldine-Atherton. Rawls, John, 1971.... more ... 1971. Bureaucracy and Representative Government. Chicago: Aldine-Atherton. Rawls, John, 1971. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ... 23 Page 25. Weitzman, Murray S., Nadine T. Jalandoni, Linda M. Lampkin, and Thomas H. Pollak, 2002. ...

Research paper thumbnail of Making Philanthropy Work: Social Capital and Human Capital as Predictors of Household Giving

Claremont Colleges Working Papers, 2001

Research paper thumbnail of Comment: An Algebra-Based Complement to “Demonstrating the Equivalence Between Two Methods of Measuring Excess Burden”

The Journal of Economic Education, 2003

Research paper thumbnail of Giving in the United States

The Palgrave Handbook of Global Philanthropy, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of Exploring the Gender Gap on the GRE Subject Test in Economics

The Journal of Economic Education, 1995

On average, women achieve lower scores on the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) Subject Test in Economic... more On average, women achieve lower scores on the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) Subject Test in Economics than men. From 1989 through 1992, 5,815 men and 2,164 women nationwide took the exam; the mean score for women was 603, in contrast to a mean score of 651 for ...

Research paper thumbnail of Who Decides in Giving to Education? A Study of Charitable Giving by Married Couples

International Journal of Educational Advancement, 2007

Using data from the Center on Philanthropy Panel Study and the Panel Study on Income Dynamics, we... more Using data from the Center on Philanthropy Panel Study and the Panel Study on Income Dynamics, we analyzed whether husbands or wives were more likely to determine whether and how much money to donate to educational institutions. Among donor households, we are able to examine what socioeconomic demographic factors explain differences in whether men or women are more likely to decide to give to educational institutions. We also compare the

Research paper thumbnail of Altruism Toward Groups: The Charitable Provision of Private Goods

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 1997

Abstract One form of altruism is the voluntary provision of public goods. Theories of altruism ba... more Abstract One form of altruism is the voluntary provision of public goods. Theories of altruism based on the public goods model, however, lead to false predictions of giving only by the very wealthiest members of large groups and of dollar-for-dollar crowding out of private ...

Research paper thumbnail of Nonmonetary Rewards for Skilled Volunteer Labor: A Look at Crisis Intervention Volunteers

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 1989

The unpaid labor of volunteers requires an explanation for its moti vation. Three theories of vol... more The unpaid labor of volunteers requires an explanation for its moti vation. Three theories of volunteer reward are examined: leisure, investment, and a perceived link between volunteer behavior and subsequent outcomes. Volunteers at a crisis intervention center were surveyed, and a set of patterns of volunteer motivation was identified. Implications are drawn for volunteer-employing organizations and public policy.

Research paper thumbnail of The Scope of Volunteer Activity and Public Service

Law and Contemporary Problems, 1999

I would like to thank the participants in that conference, with special thanks to Emmett Carson a... more I would like to thank the participants in that conference, with special thanks to Emmett Carson and Charles Clotfelter, for helpful comments, and the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation for financial support for this research.

Research paper thumbnail of The intergenerational transmission of generosity

Journal of Public Economics, 2008

and Villanova, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments; to Rob Bandy and William Chin for... more and Villanova, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments; to Rob Bandy and William Chin for help with data processing; to Joseph Lupton for sharing unpublished regression results, and to Una Okonkwo Osili for kindly sharing data.

Research paper thumbnail of Gifts of money and gifts of time estimating the effects of tax prices and available time

Journal of Public Economics, 1992

We develop a model that recognizes interdependence between individuals' charitable cash donations... more We develop a model that recognizes interdependence between individuals' charitable cash donations and volunteer labor. Using survey data, we estimate giving functions jointly, allowing a binding non-negativity constraint in one giving equation to affect the form of the other. The tax price of money giving is significant in all equations, with estimated elasticities of-1.7 for money giving,-2.1 for women's time, and-1.1 for men's time. The complementarity between volunteer labor and cash donations suggests that the effect of tax policy on philanthropy is understated by considering monetary donations alone.

Research paper thumbnail of Human Capital Accumulation and the Optimal Level of Unemployment Insurance Provision

Journal of Labor Economics, 1988

Previous studies of optimal unemployment insurance (UI) design ignore the impact of UI on human c... more Previous studies of optimal unemployment insurance (UI) design ignore the impact of UI on human capital investment decisions. We show that fully experience-rated UI increases investment in human capital when future employment opportunities are not known with ...

Research paper thumbnail of Unemployment Insurance Taxes and Cyclical Layoff Incentives

Journal of Labor Economics, 1986

Page 1. Unemployment Insurance Taxes and Cyclical Layoff Incentives Eleanor P. Brown, University ... more Page 1. Unemployment Insurance Taxes and Cyclical Layoff Incentives Eleanor P. Brown, University of Florida and Princeton University When unemployment insurance (UI) taxes are incompletely expe-rience rated, a self-financing ...

Research paper thumbnail of Inheritance and Charitable Donations

A Last Minute R Us production. We thank the many supporters of the Center on Philanthropy and the... more A Last Minute R Us production. We thank the many supporters of the Center on Philanthropy and the Center for funneling support our way for this research. We also thank Adrian Sargeant, Sheryl Ball, and Francie Ostrower for providing useful references, and Rob McClelland, John Havens, and other attendees at the ARNOVA conference where an earlier version of this paper was presented.

Research paper thumbnail of Philanthropy and social capital in Los Angeles

Philanthropy-private action for the public good-is a critical indicator of the capacity of a comm... more Philanthropy-private action for the public good-is a critical indicator of the capacity of a community to identify public problems and to develop strategies for addressing them. A community's generosity in providing monetary donations and volunteer time is critical in shaping its nonprofit organizations for public problem solving. Philanthropy provides the margin for experimentation and innovation in nonprofit organizations that are now an integral part of service delivery systems in urban communities. But more than that, philanthropy is a lynchpin in creating and reinforcing connections within communities that engender trust and commitment among individuals, enhancing the ability of communities to govern themselves by building social capital-the networks and norms that build trust, shared values, and reciprocity among individuals. Los Angeles United States Giving Volunteering Giving Volunteering

Research paper thumbnail of Assessing the value of volunteer activity

One standard way to convert estimates of time volunteered into estimates of the dollar value of v... more One standard way to convert estimates of time volunteered into estimates of the dollar value of volunteered time is to multiply estimated hours by the average hourly compensation rate for paid labor. Economic theory suggests an alternative valuation strategy that acknowledges the importance of taxes, the provision of volunteer-assisted services at lessthan-market prices, and the value of volunteer experiences captured by volunteers themselves. One conclusion is that the standard estimate overstates the value of volunteering to the recipients of volunteer-assisted services but understates the overall value of volunteering when the gains accruing to volunteers themselves are included. Note: This article is a revision of one presented at the 26th annual conference of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action, Indianapolis, Indiana, December 4-6, 1997. I gratefully acknowledge research support from the National Commission on Philanthropy and Civic Renewal. I would like to thank Matthew Hamilton, Paul Schervish, and, especially, John Havens for helping me to understand the Independent Sector data. I alone am responsible for all shortcomings of the views and analysis presented herein.

Research paper thumbnail of Giving in the United States: Generous Philanthropy in a Classic Liberal Regime

The Palgrave Handbook of Global Philanthropy, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of Altruism Towards Groups: The Charitable Provision of Private Goods

Research paper thumbnail of Readings, issues, and questions in public finance

Research paper thumbnail of Toward an Economics of Stewardship: Family Failure and the Theory of the Nonprofit Sector

ABSTRACT Not all persons are capable of effectively conducting their lives in a way consistent wi... more ABSTRACT Not all persons are capable of effectively conducting their lives in a way consistent with the pursuit of their own well being. A stewardship relationship exists when one person (the steward) is given authority to make decisions on behalf of and not at the behest of another (the ward) whose decision making capacity has been judged to lack sufficient congruence with some external standard of his or her well being. Effective stewardship is seen to require information sets relevant to the pursuit of the ward's well being, and ward-regarding behavior. Further, having abridged wards' rights in pursuit of their well being, the government must be able to monitor stewardship. The important economic function of families as units of resource redistribution suggests that they may in general provide the appropriate institution for the provision of stewardship, but data caution that family failure, in the sense of failing to effect a resource distribution that adequately pursues the well being of all of its members, is a substantial cause for concern. The structure of nonprofit firms is seen to be well suited to the provision of stewardship; besides well-known cases in which the existence of the nonprofit sector is seen as a corrective for instances of market failure and of government failure, the case of stewardship adds amelioration of family failure as a raison d'être of the nonprofit sector.

Research paper thumbnail of Donors, Ideologues, and Bureaucrats: The Principal-Agent Relationship between Government and the Nonprofit Sector

... 1971. Bureaucracy and Representative Government. Chicago: Aldine-Atherton. Rawls, John, 1971.... more ... 1971. Bureaucracy and Representative Government. Chicago: Aldine-Atherton. Rawls, John, 1971. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ... 23 Page 25. Weitzman, Murray S., Nadine T. Jalandoni, Linda M. Lampkin, and Thomas H. Pollak, 2002. ...

Research paper thumbnail of Making Philanthropy Work: Social Capital and Human Capital as Predictors of Household Giving

Claremont Colleges Working Papers, 2001

Research paper thumbnail of Comment: An Algebra-Based Complement to “Demonstrating the Equivalence Between Two Methods of Measuring Excess Burden”

The Journal of Economic Education, 2003

Research paper thumbnail of Giving in the United States

The Palgrave Handbook of Global Philanthropy, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of Exploring the Gender Gap on the GRE Subject Test in Economics

The Journal of Economic Education, 1995

On average, women achieve lower scores on the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) Subject Test in Economic... more On average, women achieve lower scores on the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) Subject Test in Economics than men. From 1989 through 1992, 5,815 men and 2,164 women nationwide took the exam; the mean score for women was 603, in contrast to a mean score of 651 for ...

Research paper thumbnail of Who Decides in Giving to Education? A Study of Charitable Giving by Married Couples

International Journal of Educational Advancement, 2007

Using data from the Center on Philanthropy Panel Study and the Panel Study on Income Dynamics, we... more Using data from the Center on Philanthropy Panel Study and the Panel Study on Income Dynamics, we analyzed whether husbands or wives were more likely to determine whether and how much money to donate to educational institutions. Among donor households, we are able to examine what socioeconomic demographic factors explain differences in whether men or women are more likely to decide to give to educational institutions. We also compare the

Research paper thumbnail of Altruism Toward Groups: The Charitable Provision of Private Goods

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 1997

Abstract One form of altruism is the voluntary provision of public goods. Theories of altruism ba... more Abstract One form of altruism is the voluntary provision of public goods. Theories of altruism based on the public goods model, however, lead to false predictions of giving only by the very wealthiest members of large groups and of dollar-for-dollar crowding out of private ...

Research paper thumbnail of Nonmonetary Rewards for Skilled Volunteer Labor: A Look at Crisis Intervention Volunteers

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 1989

The unpaid labor of volunteers requires an explanation for its moti vation. Three theories of vol... more The unpaid labor of volunteers requires an explanation for its moti vation. Three theories of volunteer reward are examined: leisure, investment, and a perceived link between volunteer behavior and subsequent outcomes. Volunteers at a crisis intervention center were surveyed, and a set of patterns of volunteer motivation was identified. Implications are drawn for volunteer-employing organizations and public policy.

Research paper thumbnail of The Scope of Volunteer Activity and Public Service

Law and Contemporary Problems, 1999

I would like to thank the participants in that conference, with special thanks to Emmett Carson a... more I would like to thank the participants in that conference, with special thanks to Emmett Carson and Charles Clotfelter, for helpful comments, and the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation for financial support for this research.

Research paper thumbnail of The intergenerational transmission of generosity

Journal of Public Economics, 2008

and Villanova, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments; to Rob Bandy and William Chin for... more and Villanova, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments; to Rob Bandy and William Chin for help with data processing; to Joseph Lupton for sharing unpublished regression results, and to Una Okonkwo Osili for kindly sharing data.

Research paper thumbnail of Gifts of money and gifts of time estimating the effects of tax prices and available time

Journal of Public Economics, 1992

We develop a model that recognizes interdependence between individuals' charitable cash donations... more We develop a model that recognizes interdependence between individuals' charitable cash donations and volunteer labor. Using survey data, we estimate giving functions jointly, allowing a binding non-negativity constraint in one giving equation to affect the form of the other. The tax price of money giving is significant in all equations, with estimated elasticities of-1.7 for money giving,-2.1 for women's time, and-1.1 for men's time. The complementarity between volunteer labor and cash donations suggests that the effect of tax policy on philanthropy is understated by considering monetary donations alone.

Research paper thumbnail of Human Capital Accumulation and the Optimal Level of Unemployment Insurance Provision

Journal of Labor Economics, 1988

Previous studies of optimal unemployment insurance (UI) design ignore the impact of UI on human c... more Previous studies of optimal unemployment insurance (UI) design ignore the impact of UI on human capital investment decisions. We show that fully experience-rated UI increases investment in human capital when future employment opportunities are not known with ...

Research paper thumbnail of Unemployment Insurance Taxes and Cyclical Layoff Incentives

Journal of Labor Economics, 1986

Page 1. Unemployment Insurance Taxes and Cyclical Layoff Incentives Eleanor P. Brown, University ... more Page 1. Unemployment Insurance Taxes and Cyclical Layoff Incentives Eleanor P. Brown, University of Florida and Princeton University When unemployment insurance (UI) taxes are incompletely expe-rience rated, a self-financing ...

Research paper thumbnail of Inheritance and Charitable Donations

A Last Minute R Us production. We thank the many supporters of the Center on Philanthropy and the... more A Last Minute R Us production. We thank the many supporters of the Center on Philanthropy and the Center for funneling support our way for this research. We also thank Adrian Sargeant, Sheryl Ball, and Francie Ostrower for providing useful references, and Rob McClelland, John Havens, and other attendees at the ARNOVA conference where an earlier version of this paper was presented.

Research paper thumbnail of Philanthropy and social capital in Los Angeles

Philanthropy-private action for the public good-is a critical indicator of the capacity of a comm... more Philanthropy-private action for the public good-is a critical indicator of the capacity of a community to identify public problems and to develop strategies for addressing them. A community's generosity in providing monetary donations and volunteer time is critical in shaping its nonprofit organizations for public problem solving. Philanthropy provides the margin for experimentation and innovation in nonprofit organizations that are now an integral part of service delivery systems in urban communities. But more than that, philanthropy is a lynchpin in creating and reinforcing connections within communities that engender trust and commitment among individuals, enhancing the ability of communities to govern themselves by building social capital-the networks and norms that build trust, shared values, and reciprocity among individuals. Los Angeles United States Giving Volunteering Giving Volunteering