The supply of volunteer labor: the case of hospitals

Little is known about the labor market for volunteers, but even less is known about the supply of volunteers to particular industries. This article examines the supply of volunteer labor to one industry, hospitals, and the choices that volunteers make among hospitals with different ownership attributes. Survey data of volunteers at four hospitals located in Madison, Wisconsin, are used to estimate the importance of a number of factors influencing people's willingness to volunteer at hospitals. We found that job opportunities in the labor market and tax rates affect the supply of volunteers. We also found that volunteers are not indifferent to the type of hospital at which they volunteer; a federal government hospital, a nonprofit state-owned teaching hospital, and other nonprofit hospitals were not perfect substitutes in the eyes of individual volunteers in our study.