Cross-National Differences in Charitable Giving in the West and the World

Most theories of cross-national variation in charitable giving have been tested only on samples of countries of Western European culture; this paper applies these theories to 114 countries, including 93 non-Western countries, using data from the Gallup World Poll. It finds strong support for economic and political theories of cross-national variation in charitable giving and partial support for religious and cultural theories. Theories effectively predict variation in giving in middle income non-Western countries but poorly predict variation in low-income non-Western countries. This suggests that economic development, not cultural or religious differences, separate non-Western countries from Western ones in patterns of giving behavior.