Seminars 2007 — Abstracts
Friday, November 9
Speaker:
Cain Polidano,
Monash
Title:
Workplace Motivations for Volunteering: Evidence from Australia
Abstract: Since Putnam’s theory of social capital (1995), governments have tried to encourage volunteering. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the literature on the motivations for volunteering. Using a nationally representative panel database from Australia and a discrete choice modelling approach, a positive correlation between volunteering and being in labour market transition, either into the workforce, into a job or between jobs, was found. Results in this paper support the hypothesis that as well as volunteering for pleasure, people volunteer for greater short-term labour market mobility.
