Volunteer labor supply

Paul L. Menchik*, Burton A. Weisbrod

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

250 Scopus citations

Abstract

We model the supply of volunteer labor, which received an explicit wage of zero. Quantitatively important, it constituted over 5 percent of the entire labor supply in the United States in 1980. Both consumption and investment models are considered - the former positing volunteering as an ordinary consumer good, while the latter posits it as a means of obtaining on-the-job experience. Empirical estimation, based on survey data, discloses statistically significant effects of price and income variables on the supply of volunteer labor.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)159-183
Number of pages25
JournalJournal of Public Economics
Volume32
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1987

Funding

*The authors thank the National Science Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty for financial support, Harley Frazis, for helpful comments and Nestor Dominguez, Michael Dunham, and Nancy Williamson for programming assistance. This paper builds on our earlier work [Menchik and Weisbrod (1981)].

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Finance
  • Economics and Econometrics

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