Individual donation models and utility functions.

Recipient financial need is a crucial factor in donation decisions. This study proposes a novel model for determining financial donations, incorporating consumption levels of both donor and recipient within a societal context. Solving our model’s utility maximization problem reveals how consumption, donation, and savings are interlinked. Empirical evidence reinforces these findings, aligning with prior research and showing that larger consumption gaps between donors and recipients lead to increased donations. Our findings point towards an inherent altruistic motivation in donation, where elevating the recipient’s well-being ultimately enhances the donor’s own utility. This reinforces the notion that consideration of the recipient’s financial hardship, as reflected by their consumption patterns, is crucial when making donation decisions. Shifting beyond traditional models, this study introduces a groundbreaking approach to financial donations. Our novel model factors in consumption levels of both the donor and recipient, along with the broader societal context, using utility maximization to unravel the intertwined decisions of consumption, donation, and savings. Real-world data validates our model, confirming known donation factors and revealing a key finding: larger disparities in consumption lead to increased giving, suggesting an altruistic drive where helping others boosts personal satisfaction.

受赠者的经济需求是捐赠决策中的核心考量因素。本研究提出一种面向资金捐赠决策的新型模型，将捐赠者与受赠者的消费水平纳入社会整体情境之中进行分析。通过求解该模型的效用最大化问题，可揭示消费、捐赠与储蓄三者间的内在关联。实证研究结果佐证了上述结论，其与既往研究成果相符，并表明捐赠者与受赠者的消费水平差距越大，捐赠额度便越高。本研究结论显示，捐赠行为存在内在的利他动机：提升受赠者的福祉，最终可增进捐赠者自身的效用水平。这进一步印证了，在制定捐赠决策时，考量受赠者以消费模式体现的经济困境至关重要。相较于传统模型，本研究为资金捐赠领域引入了一种突破性的分析框架。本新型模型将捐赠者与受赠者的消费水平，以及更广泛的社会情境纳入考量，通过效用最大化方法解析消费、捐赠与储蓄三者间的联动决策逻辑。真实世界数据对本模型进行了验证，不仅证实了已有的捐赠影响因素，还揭示了一项核心结论：消费水平差距越大，捐赠意愿与额度越高，这表明利他动机驱动着捐赠行为——帮助他人最终可提升个人满足感。