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Jonathan Meer

Texas A&M University, USA

IZA World of Labor role

Author

Current position

Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Texas A&M University (2014–)

Research interest

Charitable giving and the economics of education

Website

http://people.tamu.edu/~jmeer/

Past positions

Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution (Fall 2015); Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research (2015–); Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University (2009–2014)

Qualifications

PhD Economics, Stanford University, 2009

Selected publications

  • “Does fundraising create new giving?” Journal of Public Economics (Forthcoming).

  • “The impact of teacher-student gender matches: Random assignment evidence from South Korea.” Journal of Human Resources (Forthcoming) (with J. Lim).

  • “A field experiment on directed giving at a public university.” Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (Forthcoming) (with C. Eckel and D. Herberich).

  • “Effects of the minimum wage on employment dynamics.” Journal of Human Resources 51:2 (2016): 500–522 (with J. West).

  • “Brother, can you spare a dime: Peer pressure in charitable solicitation.” Journal of Public Economics 95:7–8 (2011): 926–941.

article(s)

  • Are overhead costs a good guide for charitable giving?

    Donors rely on overhead costs to evaluate charities, but that reliance creates disincentives for charities to hire skilled workers

    Jonathan Meer, January 2017
    Charity rating agencies often focus on overhead cost ratios in evaluating charities, and donors appear to be sensitive to these measures when deciding where to donate. Yet, there appears to be a tenuous connection between this widely-used metric and a charity’s effectiveness. There is evidence that a focus on overhead costs leads charities to underinvest in important functions, especially skilled workers. To evaluate policies that regulate overhead costs, it is necessary to examine whether donors care about overhead costs, whether they are good measures of charity effectiveness, and what effects a focus on overhead costs has on charities.
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