The Atlantic

Why Are Americans Less Charitable Than They Used to Be?

Researchers found that the losses of the Great Recession do not entirely explain why people aren’t giving very much money to charity.
Source: Ted Warren / AP

The average American has grown more tight-fisted in recent years, donating a smaller portion of his or her income to charity than he or she did 10 years ago. In some ways, that shift makes sense following the Great Recession, which slashed personal incomes and wealth. Yet even as the country’s economy started to recover, Americans have remained stingier than before, according to new research by economists at Texas A&M University.

In their , released this month, researchers from Texas A&M gathered data from the Panel Study of Income

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