The opportunity costs of tsunami aid
Earlier this month Virginia Postrel accurately predicted that there would be a follow-up story on how “generosity toward tsunami victims is pulling money away from other, often local, charities.” As these stories go, you could do far, far worse than Daniel Gross’ Slate essay on the topic. The key paragraph: The outpouring of tsunami donations ...
Earlier this month Virginia Postrel accurately predicted that there would be a follow-up story on how "generosity toward tsunami victims is pulling money away from other, often local, charities." As these stories go, you could do far, far worse than Daniel Gross' Slate essay on the topic. The key paragraph:
Earlier this month Virginia Postrel accurately predicted that there would be a follow-up story on how “generosity toward tsunami victims is pulling money away from other, often local, charities.” As these stories go, you could do far, far worse than Daniel Gross’ Slate essay on the topic. The key paragraph:
The outpouring of tsunami donations in early January 2005 probably won’t have much of an effect on overall giving levels. And it’s likely that many other extremely worthy charities will see their receipts fall. Is that disappointing? Maybe. But there’s a different lesson. What’s amazing about these very large figures—$480 million (and counting) for tsunami relief, $1.88 billion post 9/11—is that they are just a drop in the bucket of overall donations. They don’t really sway the overall numbers. A very large portion of U.S. charitable giving probably isn’t spontaneous. Lots of donations derive from bequests and estates, multi-year commitments from foundations and individuals, and annual gifts from corporations. So, the ability of any one event to inspire some fundamental shift in giving is limited.
Read the whole thing.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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