Z:gnu-www-ja-frank--2f9c6c-The central role of the free-r/en

The central role of the free-rider hypothesis in modern economic theory suggests that economists might be less likely than others to make gifts to private charities. To explore this possibility, we mailed questionnaires to 1245 college professors randomly chosen from the professional directories of 23 disciplines, asking them to report the annual dollar amounts they gave to a variety of private charities. We received 576 responses with sufficient detail for inclusion in our study. Respondents were grouped into the following disciplines: economics (N 75); other social sciences (N 106); math, computer science, and engineering (N 48); natural sciences (N 98); humanities (N 94); architecture, art, and music (N 68); and professional (N 87). Members of every discipline, even economics, fell far short of the prediction of the strong version of the free-rider hypothesis. But the proportion of pure free riders among economists (that is, those who reported giving no money to any charity) was more than double that of any of the other six areas included in the survey. (See Figure 1.)