Kathleen M. Day

The Payoff to Work without Pay: Volunteer Work as an Investment in Human Capital

Despite the widespread belief that volunteer work enhances an individuals employment prospects, the hypothesis that volunteer work increases ones earnings has never been empirically verified. Using a recent Canadian data set, the authors test this hypothesis by estimating human capital earnings equations that include dummy variables representing to distinguish volunteers from nonvolunteers. The results suggest that the return to volunteering amounts to 6-7 percent of annual earnings.

Volunteerism and Crowding Out: Canadian Econometric Evidence

Volunteers make an important contribution to Canadian society. The authors address what motivates people to volunteer and whether they respond to government expenditure decisions using a 1987 microdata set and find that, while the level of government spending influences the decision to volunteer, it has no effect on the number of hours donated. Furthermore, the nature of this relationship depends upon the particular type of government expenditures. For instance, the number of volunteers contracts when expenditures on certain economy-related activities fall, while reductions in health-care spending bring about an increased number of volunteers.

Can volunteer work help explain the male-female earnings gap?

Using the 1987 Survey of Volunteer Activity in Canada, we examine whether differential returns to volunteer work in the paid labour market can explain part of the male-female earnings gap. Male volunteers earn, on average, about 11% higher incomes than their non-volunteering counterparts as a result of their volunteer experience, whereas comparable female volunteers and non-volunteers earn similar incomes. This differential return across the sexes may be partially explained by the type of volunteer activity undertaken. Our results indicate that as much as one third of the male-female earnings gap may be attributable to the fact that the labour market rewards male and female volunteers differently.

Do Government Expenditures Crowd Out Corporate Contributions

The question of whether corporate charitable contributions are crowded out by government expenditures has been virtually neglected in the literature. While governments are engaged in fiscal realignments, it seems timely to ascertain whether the corporate sector will fund any shortfall in services brought about by government spending adjustments. The authors address this issue using a unique microdata set containing 641 observations on corporate giving over the three-year period from 1990 through 1992. Rather than filling the gap left by government spending reductions, their results suggest that corporate contributions could, in fact, contract—that is, government spending and corporate contributions may be complements rather than substitutes.

Multi-disciplinary handover An observational study of common and unique content in general internal medicine, surgery and the ED research protocol

Up to now, handover studies have typically involved one health care professional group or a single hospital department. Using distributed cognition and cognitive work analysis as frameworks, this ethnographic study is intended to identify the common and unique elements of handover of care in three different hospital departments (Internal Medicine, General Surgery, and Emergency Medicine), with all professional groups that conduct handover. In addition, feedback will be sought from patients and their families on the content of handovers as well as the handover process.