Who is more generous over a life cycle? Evidence from China

Drawing on the charitable giving literature, we deploy the 2010–2018 waves of the China Family Panel Studies and employ the Heckman model to determine the more generous age group. The results demonstrate that young donors are more likely to donate and to give more. The robustness checks based on probit, ordinary least squares, IV-Heckman and propensity score matching further support the above findings. Further examinations show that the more years of schooling caused by the change in the education system is the reason for the more generous behavior of young households and find that the change in the education system enhances the incidence and the amount of giving partially by giving the young an advantage in savings. The study suggests that the more generous age group may vary by economic and social factors, and a further understanding of the relationship between age and giving in different contexts is conducive to promoting the development of philanthropy.