Volunteer activity and the demands of work and family.

(3.) For discussions of different rationales for volunteering, see Andreoni (1990), Rose-Ackerman (1996) and Woolley (2001, 2003). While our analysis deals with formal volunteer activity in a variety of spheres, some studies focus on volunteering in political activities (Rosenthal, Feiring and Lewis 1998; Verba, Schlozman and Brady 1995).

(4.) Those transformations are discussed in Drago and Hyatt (2003), Duxbury and Higgins (2001), Gunderson (2002) and Lowe and Schellenberg (2001) and references cited therein.

(5.) Comparisons are difficult, however, because of the differences in the data sets, specifications and subgroups. Vaillancourt (1994) and Day and Devlin (1996) use the 1987 Survey of Volunteering (VAT) which does not have crucial wage data. Statistics Canada studies that use the more recent 1997 or 2000 National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating (NSGVP) (respectively Hall et al. 1998 and 2001) either provide only cross-tabulations that do not control for the influence of other factors, or, as in the case of Devlin (2001), they focus on the impact of volunteering on earnings, and only verbally discuss the impact of the determinants of the volunteering decision, with no wage or income measures. Other studies deal only with particular subgroups--youths (Jones 2000), seniors (Gunderson 1999; Jones 1999), the unemployed (Gomez and Gunderson 2001; Wong and Henson 2000, the latter focusing on the impacts, not determinants, of volunteering). None of these studies provides an econometric analysis that utilizes a comprehensive set of work and family variables as well as wage, income and union status measures for all employed persons--as is the case with this study.

(6.) The Statistics Canada NSGVP does include questions on informal volunteering (not part of a group or organization) for others outside their household such as shopping, driving to appointments and performing housework and home maintenance (Hall et al. 1998, 2001).

(7.) For continuous independent variables this is simply dP/dx = P(1-P)b where b is the vector of logit coefficients, x is the vector of explanatory variables and P is the probability of volunteering, with the mean P conventionally being used. For categorical independent variables, which involve discrete changes in x, the change in probability is calculated by evaluating the probability from the logistic function with the effect of the variable included, and then subtracting the probability with the effect of the variable excluded.

(8.) Hourly wage: Annual earnings divided by annual hours worked. The annual earnings figure was provided by the respondent. Annual hours worked was calculated as the product of average hours per week times weeks worked per year, both provided by the respondent. Other household income: The variable household income was coded in intervals: less than $5,000 per year, $5,00(09,999, $10,000-$14,999 etc., with the top interval being $100,000 plus. A continuous variable was created by using the midpoint of each interval, and $2,000 for the bottom interval and $120,000 for the top interval. The respondent's annual earnings was subtracted from this to get a measure of other household income (i.e., non-labour market income for the respondent). Pineo occupational prestige index: An index of occupational prestige, reversed here to go from a low of 1 (farm labour) to 2 (unskilled manual labour) up to 14 for high level management to 15 for employed professionals to 16 for self-employed professionals. As indicated in the GSS codebook, it "groups the 4 digit SOC codes into 16 homogenous groups." Treatment of unknowns: For many variables, an "unknown" response was recorded in a small number of cases. These were given the mean value.

(9.) This can be seen from the fact that there is a positive wealth effect from the various measures used to capture wealth (discussed previously). If the wage and income measures were in comparable units so we could net out the income effect from the gross wage effect, the pure or income compensated substitution effect of the wage variable would be substantially more negative then the small effect from the gross wage change.

(10.) In studies that are unable to control for wages (Day and Devlin 1996; Vaillancourt 1994; Wong and Henson 2000) males are less likely to volunteer or the differences are insignificant, although Devlin (2001) finds that males are more likely to volunteer. In the raw tabulations (Appendix available on request from the authors) the proportions who volunteer are very similar for males (0.215) and females (0.207).

(11.) This is generally not the case in the raw tabulations (Appendix Table 1, available on request from the authors) where the proportion who volunteered in every age category beyond age 29 was always in the 20 plus range compared to 17.2 percent for the 15-19 age group and even lower at 14.3 percent for the 20-29 age group. This suggests that the higher probability of volunteering for older workers round in the raw tabulations likely reflects the indirect effects of other factors (e.g., higher wealth, more children or religious involvement) that are associated with more volunteering. Once these factors are controlled for in the econometric analysis, the effect of age by itself becomes negative. This is also found in Vaillancourt (1994) and Wong and Henson (2000) albeit not in Devlin (2001).

(12.) This effect of immigrant status is found in other econometric studies (Day and Devlin 1996; Devlin 2001; Vaillancourt 1994).

(13.) This effect of religion is found in other econometric studies (Day and Devlin 1996; Devfin 2001; Vaillancourt 1994).

(14.) This strong effect of education is also round in other econometric studies that are not able to control for income and wages (Day and Devfin 1996; Devlin 2001; Vaillancourt 1994).

(15.) The lower likelihood of volunteering in Quebec or French speaking Canada is also round in other econometric studies (Day and Devlin 1996; Devlin 2001; Vaillancourt 1994) and it is documented in the simple tabulations from the Statistics Canada NSGVP surveys (Hall et al. 1998, 2001).

(16.) Woolley (2003) discusses the international evidence and literature.

REFERENCES

ANDREONI, J. 1990. "Impure Altruism and Donations to Public Goods: A Theory of Warm-Glow Giving." Economic Journal, Vol. 100, 464-477.

DAY, K., and R.A. DEVLIN. 1996. "Volunteerism and Crowding Out: Canadian Econometric Evidence." Canadian Journal of Economics, Vol. 29, 37-53.

DAY, K., and R.A. DEVLIN. 1998. "The Payoff to Work without Pay: Volunteer Work as an Investment in Human Capital." Canadian Journal of Economics, Vol. 31, 1179-1191.

DEVLIN, R.A. 2001. "Volunteers and the Paid Labour Market." Isuma: Canadian Journal of Policy Research, Vol. 2, No. 2, 62-58.

DICKEN, B., and R. BLOMBERG. 1988. "Evaluating Volunteer Experience of Women Reentering the Work Force." Personnel Journal, Vol. 67, 94-99.

DRAGO, R., and D. HYATT. 2003. "Symposium: The Effect of Work-Family Policies on Employees and Employers." Industrial Relations, Vol. 42, 139-144.

DUXBURY, L., and C. HIGGINS. 2001. Work-Life Balance in the New Millennium: Where are We? Where do We Need to Go? Ottawa: Canadian Policy Research Networks.

FREEMAN, R. 1996. "Working for Nothing: The Supply of Volunteer Labor." Journal of Labor Economics, Vol. 15, S140-S166.

GUNDERSON, M. 1999. "Volunteer Activities amongst Seniors and Retirees." Ottawa: Human Resources Development Canada.

GUNDERSON, M. 2002. "Rethinking Productivity from a Workplace Perspective." Ottawa: Canadian Policy Research Network.

GOMEZ, R., and M. GUNDERSON. 2001. "Volunteer Activities of Employment Insurance Recipients." Esssays on the Repeat Use of Unemployment Insurance. S. Schwartz and A. Aydemir, eds. Ottawa: Social Research and Demonstration Corporation, 155-177.

HALL, M., T. KNIGHTON, P. REED, P. BUSSIERE, D. MCRAE and P. BOWEN. 1998. Caring Canadians, Involved Canadians: Highlights from the 1997 National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating. Ottawa: Statistics Canada 71-542-XPE.

HALL, M., L. MCKEOWN and K. ROBERTS. 2001. Caring Canadians, Involved Canadians: Highlights from the 2000 National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating. Ottawa: Statistics Canada 71-542-XPE.

JONES, F. 1999. "Seniors Who Volunteer." Perspectives on Labour and Income, Vol. 11, No. 3, 9-17.

JONES, F. 2000. "Youth Volunteering on the Rise." Perspectives on Labour and Income. Vol. 12, No. 1, 36--41.

LOWE, G., and G. SCHELLENBERG. 2001. "What's a Good Job? The Importance of Employment Relationships." Ottawa: Canadian Policy Research Network.

MUELLER, M. 1975. "Economic Determinants of Volunteer Work by Women." Signs, Vol. 1,325-338.

OECD. 1997. Social Cohesion and the Globalising Economy. Paris: Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development.

O'NEILL, M. 1989. The Third America: The Emergence of the Non Profit Sector in the United States. San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass.

PUTNAM, R. 1995. "Tuning In, Tuning Out: The Strange Disappearance of Social Capital in America." Political Science and Politics (December), 664-683.

ROSE-ACKERMAN, S. 1996. "Altruisim, Nonprofits and Economic Theory." Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 34, 701-728.

ROSENTHAL, S, C. FEIRING and M. LEWIS. 1998. "Political Volunteering from Late Adolescence to Young Adulthood: Patterns and Predictors." Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 54, 477-493.

VAILLANCOURT, F. 1994. "To Volunteer or Not: Canada, 1987." Canadian Journal of Economics, Vol. 27, 813-825.

VERBA, S., K. SCHLOZMAN and H. BRADY. 1995. Voice and Equality: Civic Volntarism in American Politics. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press 1995.

Print Get the Mag Weekly Updates