 | ISTR Sixth International Conference Toronto, Canada / July 11-14, 2004 Contesting Citizenship and Civil Society in a Divided World |
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How homo oeconomicus became a volunteer
by
Eva Hollerweger
NPO-Institute, Vienna University of Economics and BA, Reithlegasse 16, A-1190 Wien, Austria
Coauthors: Susanne Ziemek
Traditional economic theories describe human behaviour and interactions according to the principles of rationality and utility maximization. Actions of the so-called homo oeconomicus are therefore always guided by the aim to increase own utility and to act in one’s self-interest. Against this background, the applicability of economic theories in explaining behaviour like volunteering seems very limited. The definition of volunteering is predominantly grounded on the idea of increasing the utility of others and therefore stands in direct contradiction to the core economic assumptions of human behaviour. Nevertheless - or perhaps even tempted by this apparent paradox - volunteering has caught the interest of economists already for a considerable time. The paper investigates how scholars deal with the behaviour of volunteers, that seems to contradict the principles of economic rationality and discusses the methods they use to frame volunteering theoretically. Some approaches, like the theory of philanthropic behaviour proceed from classical economic models by loosening assumptions formerly made. The theory of altruism questions the utility function of volunteers and discusses how the utility of other persons can be integrated into the altruist’s utility function (Rose-Ackerman 1996). In a similar way the net cost theory differentiates between the private and the public utility, which are experienced by the volunteers (Handy et al. 2000). Some scholars suggest an interdisciplinary approach and associate the homo oeconomicus with another “species“ of individuals such as the homo sociologicus (Halfpenny 1999). All in all the paper reveals that the various approaches seem to deliver new faces of the homo oeconomicus, who gradually appears to develop into a more sociable individual in accordance with the progress of research. Halfpenny, Peter (1999): Economic and Sociological Theories of Indivdual Charitable Giving: Complementary or Contradictory?, in: Voluntas Vol. 10, No. 3, S. 197-215 Handy, Femida; Cnaan, Ram A.; Brudney, Jeffery L.; Ascoli, Ugo; Meijs, Lucas C.M.P.; Ranade, Shree (2000): Public Perception of „Who is a Volunteer“: An Examination of the Net-Cost Approach from a Cross-Cultural Perspective, in: Voluntas, Vol.11, No.1, S. 45-65 Rose-Ackerman, Susan (1996): Altruism, Nonprofits, and Economic Theory, in: Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 34, June 1996, S. 701-728
Date received: September 30, 2003
Copyright © 2003 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # caml-45.