Research questions.
This paper aims at formulating hypotheses on volunteerism, starting from the available data, in Europe and in some European countries. Which will be the possible evolution of a phenomenon that does not escape the profound changes brought about by the crisis we are experiencing is the main research question that will be addressed, without forgetting the policy implications and the possible dangers of an excessive reliance on this resource in the management of this and other essential public goods.
Survey of the literature
The nonprofit sector accounts for more than 4% of GDP in developed countries (United Nations, 2007; Salamon et al. 2011). Research on volunteering in economics starts with Menchik and Weisbrood (1987), who were the first to identify economic reasons for volunteering. They note that this activity can be seen as both a consumption of a leisure good and as an investment for improving individual skills (Schiff and Weisbrod 1993; Freeman, 1997).
The main, of course related, directions have been identifying the individual benefits from volunteering, starting from the notion of altruism – the utility gained from contributing to what is perceived as “the greater good”. Other directions include the motivations for volunteering, and the wider social advantages from such activity.
The extent of volunteering is likely to be related to the degree to which it provides satisfaction to volunteers, whether undertaken as a means of consumption or investment. There is evidence that volunteering has a positive effect on household welfare (Degli Antoni, 2009). Andreoni (1990) suggests that any kind of donation produces a generic public good, connected in the case of volunteer work with social capital and trust (Putnam, 1993; Wollebæk and Kristin, 2008). These positive externalities reduce the costs connected with living together in communities by enhancing the level of disposable public goods (Apinunmahakyl and Barham 2009; Fengyan et al. 2009; Sundeen et al. 2009; Themudo 2009) or by creating new governance structures (Enjolras, 2008).
An important element is that volunteers might operate where market are particularly ineffective (Wilson and Musick 1997): they can produce goods that otherwise would not have been supplied (Borzaga, Gui e Schenkel, 1995), or they can reduce the costs of nonprofit organizations, thereby allowing them to survive. For these reasons many governments support initiatives to increase the pool of volunteers (Musick and Wilson, 2007). Weisbrod (1975) was the first to stress that the development of many nonprofit organizations was caused by government failures in delivering useful services or goods, a hypothesis recently reaffirmed empirically (Matsunaga et al. 2010). Many observers point out that the demand for volunteering has grown considerably before and especially during the crisis as a result of the retreat of the state and its administration as a producer of public goods and services (Vaughan-Whitehead, 2013).
The extent to which voluntary work is a complement to or a substitute for paid work has been extensively studied, with mixed results (Handy, Mook and Quarter, 2007; Nichols and Ojala, 2009; Rogelberg et al. 2010). Other studies also show that individuals, independently from their role, are more likely to volunteer in non-profit associations than in other types of organization (Handy et al. 2010).
Methodology and conclusions
After a brief review of the literature, some recent and until now unpublished empirical evidence on volunteers supply and demand, based on Census data, will be commented.
The literature on volunteer work is more often concerned with the field of social services. However, according to the available data, the field in which the supply of and the demand for volunteers are more equilibrated is the one of the environmental protection, rights of animals included. Moreover the most popular fields of volunteer activity are sport and artistic/cultural associations.
The participation to community and neighborhood is also increasing, indicating that the output to which volunteer work contributes (education, health, social services, entertainment, essential infrastructure, environmental and landscape protection) is not only rationed on the supply side, but also that the demand for these services is able to create its own supply.
The first results of our analysis show that volunteering is changing, without substituting public intervention, but being complementary to it.
