Damiano Fiorillo

This paper studies the factors that determine unpaid labour in a voluntary organization, a political party and a trade union. Official data has been taken from Indagine Multiscopo sulla Famiglia, Aspetti della Vita Quotidiana (1997), of the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT). In particular, the study looks at whether the decision to do voluntary work is a consumer activity and/or an investment activity. Empirical evidence shows that the supply of employed volunteers in a voluntary organization presents characteristics both of consumer and investment activity. The investment motive drives the employed individuals to offer time to a political party and a trade union, while the private consumer and the relational goods consumer encourage unemployed individuals to donate time to a voluntary organization. Key words: voluntary work, social capital, relational goods. JEL Classification: C13, C21, C31, D12, Z13.