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Stephen Knowles imageBCom(Hons) PhD (Otago)

Tel +64 3 479 8350
Email stephen.knowles@otago.ac.nz
Room 619, 6th Floor, Otago Business School

For the last decade the focus of Stephen’s research has been on the economics of altruism and charitable giving. In this research Stephen uses lab, online and field experiments to analyse why people do (or do not) donate to charities, especially to international development charities.

Specific topics he has worked on include effective altruism and the effect of matches, rebates and procrastination on charitable giving. He has also done work on other regarding preferences more generally (e.g. trust and contributions to public goods), preferences for the allocation of foreign aid and the measurement of well-being.

Earlier in his career, much of Stephen’s research was empirical work on economic growth and development. This included analysing the effects of gender inequalities in education and health on economic growth, the relationship between social capital and economic performance and the relationship between income inequality and economic growth.

Stephen’s teaching interests include the economics of developing countries and introductory microeconomics.

Selected publications

Take a look at Stephen's selected publications below:

“On generosity in public good and charitable dictator games” (with N.W. Chan, R. Peeters and L. Wolk), Journal of Economic Behavior and Economic Organization, 224:624-640, 2024.

“Timing of rebates and generosity” (with D. Fielding and R. Peeters), Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 107, 102115, 2023.

“Cost-(in)effective public good provision: an experimental exploration” (with N.W. Chan, R. Peeters and L. Wolk), Theory and Decision, 96(3):397-442, 2023.

“Health nationalism in Aotearoa New Zealand during COVID-19: Problems for global health equity”, (with J.A. Crump, P. Vakaoti, M. Moore-Jones, L. Tan, C.R. Ergler, E. Fenton, E.M.R. Anderson, P.J. Bremer, K.J. Sharples, T. Walls, M.E. Quinones-Mateu, K. Kolandai, J. Hadingham and P.C. Hill), Nature Medicine, 29(8), 1887-1889, 2023.

“Perception of generosity under matching and rebate subsidies” (with N.W. Chan, R. Peeters and L. Wolk), Judgement and Decision Making, 17(5):1058-1071, 2022.

“Procrastination and the non-monotonic effect of deadlines on task completion”, (with M. Servátka, T. Sullivan, and M. Genc), Economic Inquiry, 60:706-720, 2022.

“Materialists and altruists in a charitable donation experiment” (with D. Fielding and K. Robertson), Oxford Economic Papers 72(1):216-234, 2019.

“Does charity begin at home or overseas” (with T. Sullivan), Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 46: 944-962, 2017.

“Transaction costs, the opportunity cost of time and procrastination in charitable giving” (with M. Servatka),  Journal of Public Economics, 125: 54-63, 2015.

“Can you spare some change for charity? Experimental evidence on verbal cues and loose change effects in a Dictator Game”,(with D. Fielding) Experimental Economics, 18: 718-730, 2015.

“Developing countries in need: Which characteristics appeal most to people when donating money?” (with P. Hansen, N. Kergozou and P. Thorsnes), Journal of Development Studies 50, 1494-1509, 2014.

"Giving to Africa and Perceptions of Poverty" (with A Etang and D Fielding) Journal of Economic Psychology, 33, 2012, 819-832.

"Does trust extend beyond the village? Experimental trust and social distance in Cameroon" (with A Etang and D Fielding) Experimental Economics 14 (1), 2011, 15-35.

"Dangerous interactions: Problems in interpreting tests of conditional aid effectiveness" (with D Fielding) The World Economy 34(6), 2011, 972-983.

"Inequality and economic growth: the empirical relationship reconsidered in the light of comparable data", Journal of Development Studies, 41, 2005, 135-159.

"Total factor productivity, per capita income and social divergence", (with R.Q. Grafton and P.D. Owen), Economic Record, 80, 2004, 302-313.

"Government intervention and economic performance in East Asia", (with Arlene Garces-Ozanne), Economic Development and Cultural Change, 51, 2003, 451-477.

"Are educational gender gaps a brake on economic development? some cross-country empirical evidence", (with P Lorgelly and P D Owen), Oxford Economic Papers, 54, 2002, 118-149.

"Are the Penn World Tables data on government consumption and investment being misused?", Economics Letters, 71, 2001, 293-298.

"Education and health in an effective-labour empirical growth model", (with P D Owen), Economic Record, 73, 1997, 314-328.

"Health capital and cross-country variation in income per capita in the Mankiw-Romer-Weil model", (with P D Owen), Economics Letters, 48, 1995, 99-106.

Stephen's CV

Read Stephen Knowles' CV

Teaching responsibilities

Stephen's teaching responsibilities include:

Preferred areas of research supervision

Stephen is especially interested in supervising research students in the following areas

  • Measuring economic development and well being
  • Lab and field experiments, particularly on trust, altruism and charitable giving

Publications

Agarwal, N., Kahui, V., & Knowles, S. (2025). Are warm-glow givers also warm-glow volunteers? Applied Economics Letters. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1080/13504851.2025.2604202 Journal - Research Article

Knowles, S. (2024, June). Charitable giving and effective altruism: Do New Zealanders care about global health? [Panel discussion: Why should New Zealanders care about global health?]. Verbal presentation at the 58th Otago Foreign Policy School: Global Health: Challenges and Responses, Dunedin, New Zealand. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Chan, N. W., Knowles, S., Peeters, R., & Wolk, L. (2024). On generosity in public good and charitable dictator games. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 224, 624-640. doi: 10.1016/j.jebo.2024.05.027 Journal - Research Article

Chan, N. W., Knowles, S., Peeters, R., & Wolk, L. (2024). Measuring strength of altruistic motives. Journal of the Economic Science Association, 10, 595-602. doi: 10.1007/s40881-024-00170-w Journal - Research Article

Knowles, S., Peeters, R., Smith, M., & Wesselbaum, D. (2024). Who behaves charitably? Evidence from a global study. Applied Economics, 56(57), 7789-7806. doi: 10.1080/00036846.2023.2288063 Journal - Research Article

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