Metzger, Laura and Günther, Isabel, (2015). Making An Impact? The Relevance Of Information On Aid Effectiveness For Charitable Giving. A Laboratory Experiment.. Georg-August-Universität Göttingen.

Keywords:

Discipline:

Type of evidence: Lab-charity

Related tools: "Impact" (per $) info

Related theories:

Related critiques: Power calculations/underpowered

Charity target:

Donor population:

…the demand for information about aid impact is lowest, and it is highest for information about the recipient type

[Note: the latter would seem to also be a possible effectiveness measure!]

… exact information about aid impact did not lead to a significant change in average donation levels, while information about the exact recipient type and administrative costs led to a significant change in donation levels.

In the recipient type group, informed participants donated significantly more than uninformed participants because they “rewarded” the preferred recipient with higher-than-average transfers. In the administration costs group, informed participants donated significantly less than uninformed participants because they used the information to “punish” NGOs with high administration costs

DR: It is not clear to me when they are reporting on the self-selected groups and when they report on the sample overall, or in a way that deals with the self-selection.

Looking at their one clearer result, we see a lack of power. Average don: 2.45 CHF Aid impact group coef: -.231 (.45)

This looks like an underpowered study. They can perhaps rule out an effect greater than around half of the average donation, but no more precisely.
Meta-analysis data

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