Estimating the individual-specific predictors of volunteers in South Africa

Abstract

Volunteerism is topical in applied economics in developed economies, especially in assisting to understand its contributions to the economy. However, even though the contribution of volunteerism to the economy may be remarkable and is receiving more attention in many countries, little research has been done on this topic in developing countries. This paper uses a Logit regression with volunteer work being an independent variable to examine the correlates of volunteerism. Explanatory variables are gender, age group, population group, highest education level, own business, work status, and income category. The results show that all estimated coefficients have expected signs. Females are more likely to do volunteer work more than males, older people are more likely to participate in voluntary activities than middle age and younger ones. Results also reveal that the higher the level of education, the more likely for the person to do volunteer work. This is the same with income, the higher the income individuals earn, and the more likely they are to do volunteer work.