We have found that people working in the no-profit sector are significantly more likely to do unpaid overtime than those in the for-profit sector, a result that does not appear to be driven by implicit contracts. In order to confirm that unpaid overtime is really capturing pro-social behavior, we will use the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) to explore whether sector of employment is associated with other indicators of pro-social behaviour, such as volunteer labour and/or community activity. As well as looking at simple cross-section correlations, we will analyse the extent to which individuals select into different sectors on the basis of their level of pro-social behaviour. We will also look for evidence of a relationship between pro-social behaviour and sector of employment for other countries. We have indentified Germany and the US as two countries for which there are suitable panel datasets. The latest wave of the World Values Survey also has information for a wide range of countries on sector of employment and a wide range of indicators of social activity and volunteering. Finally, using the BHPS, we will look in more detail at volunteer labour (another form of donated labour) and consider the link with paid employment, as well as other socioeconomic determinants, including neighbourhood characteristics.
