Altruistic and selfish motivations of charitable giving: The case of the hometown tax donation system (Furusato nozei) in Japan

This study analyzes the altruistic and selfish motivations of charitable giving in the context of Japan’s hometown tax donation system, whereby people can donate to municipalities where they do not live and receive reciprocal gifts, using local government-level panel data for 2008–2015. We find that the Great East Japan earthquake led to an increase in donations through the system for municipalities with disaster victims, reflecting altruistic motivation. Furthermore, a 1% increase in gift expenditure for donors leads to 0.61% increase in donations, suggesting selfish motivation. Gift provision reduces altruistic donation by nearly 300%, compared with no such provision.