The evolution of preferences and charitable giving: a panel study of the university years

Abstract Economic preferences are often taken as given, yet evidence shows that preferences respond to life events and change over time. We examine the evolution of other-regarding preferences for a cohort of university students over 5 years, starting before they matriculate and extending one year beyond graduation. Using survey and incentivized measures of preferences, we show that altruism declines over the university years. This decline is reflected in changes in charitable giving over three donation opportunities. We rule out several alternative explanations for the observed change, including cohort differences, perceptions of the charities, and experience with experiments. We show evidence of a ‘giving type’ in charitable giving, with consistency in behavior across giving opportunities. Methodologically, we also show that the incentivized and survey measures are similar at predicting giving types. We conclude that preferences reflect common tendencies over time, while simultaneously showing an overall decline in generosity during the university years.