Over at his Market Design blog, Al Roth discusses our recent paper, “Voluntary, Unpaid, and Handsomely Rewarded: Donor Benefits in the World’s Whole-Blood Systems,” which we recently posted to SSRN. From the abstract:
The ideal of the unpaid blood donor is nearly universal; the practice is more complicated. Whole-blood systems around the world preserve a formal commitment to voluntary, nonremunerated donation-and then provide donors with gift cards, sweepstakes entries, cash “expense allowances,” paid leave, tax relief, priority service, medals, and, in some places, extra points on a child’s school exam. This Essay maps the gap between label and practice. Drawing on examples from thirteen countries spanning five continents, it organizes donor benefits by institutional mechanism: gift cards and sweepstakes; direct monetary transfers; paid work leave; other material and recognition-based benefits; and replacement donation and the informal cash markets it can generate. We demonstrate that “voluntary, nonremunerated donation” frequently coexists with substantial material benefits. Whole-blood donors nearly always receive something of value in exchange for their generosity; what varies is how those benefits are structured, funded, routed, and legally classified.
And a snippet shared by Roth:
If there is a lesson in this tour of the world’s whole-blood systems, it is that “voluntary, nonremunerated donation” is a phrase asked to carry a great deal of freight. It accommodates a $7,000 gift card, so long as the gift card is offered through a sweepstakes that does not require a blood donation to enter. It accommodates €60 in cash, so long as the cash is legally categorized as an expense allowance. It accommodates extra points on a child’s high-school entrance exam, paid leave, free public transit, priority service at the bank, and a tote bag—often all while the governing statute insists that blood may not be given for reward.
Read the whole paper here.