Bittschi, Benjamin
[VerfasserIn]
;
Dwenger, Nadja
[Sonstige Person, Familie und Körperschaft];
Rincke, Johannes
[Sonstige Person, Familie und Körperschaft]
Water the Flowers You Want to Grow? Evidence on Private Recognition and Donor Loyalty
Anmerkungen:
Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments 2020 erstellt
Beschreibung:
We study donor loyalty in the context of church membership in Germany. Church members have to make substantial payments to their church but can opt out at any time. In a large-scale field experiment, we examine how private recognition for past payments affects church members' loyalty. We find that recognizing past payments in a letter significantly reduces opt-outs. This effect is driven by members in the bottom quartile of baseline payments to the church. Consistent with optimization frictions prior to the experiment, we observe a spike in opt-outs immediately after treatment for particularly costly memberships