Charitable donations by the self-employed

This article analyzes an important aspect
of the social behavior of the self-employed in America. We ask whether the self-employed express their
social responsibility to society by giving more to
charity than the general population, and if so which
charitable causes they give to. We use social identity
theory to generate hypotheses about the determinants
and objectives of charitable giving among members of
this socially and economically important group.
Testing these hypotheses with nationally representative, longitudinal US data, we find that the American
self-employed are indeed more likely to exhibit social
responsibility toward their community by giving to
charities than the general population. While the self-employed support broadly similar charities to the
general population, they give substantially more to
organizations which: address issues in the local
community; provide health care; and serve the needy.