Summer Research Projects

Relationship between Volunteering and Income
By Nicholas Cormier

Volunteer work is an important part of our Canadian economy. Canadians volunteered almost 2.1 billion hours in 2007, which is about equivalent to 1.1 million full time jobs. With this much “free labour” being pumped into the Canadian economy each year, the question begs to be answered, is there a premium or a penalty on the income of those workers who also choose to volunteer?

This is the main topic of my research this summer — the idea that volunteering might have some effect on income. One might think that volunteering affects a person’s income for several different reasons. Employers might look at volunteer experience to judge a potential employee’s corporate social responsibility, or their input for the company beyond simply what they are paid to do. Volunteering might be considered a continuous use of skills so an individual’s talent does not get rusty over time, and might also be an indicator of how much someone values their time.

Using the Canadian Survey of Giving Volunteering and Participating from 2007, my research will assess this question using econometric techniques. After controlling for other variables that have an effect on income such as age, employment, sex, I will address issues, such as reverse causality, that relate to the connection between income and volunteering. Using regression techniques, I will determine what sort of effects volunteering has on the incomes of people in Canada.