Who Participates? The Supply of Volunteer Labor and the Distribution of Government Programs in Rural Peru

Numerous analysts have linked volunteering and participation to positive economic and political outcomes. In this paper, I use the 1994 Peru LSMS to analyze volunteering patterns in rural Peru. The basic results of the paper are two. First, volunteers in rural Peru do not appear to have a low opportunity cost of time. They are more educated, and are more likely to hold a job. Other household characteristics, such as gender, marital status, length of residence, and ethnicity, are all important predictors of the probability of volunteering. Second, controlling for household characteristics, there are large differences across communities in aggregate volunteer levels. These differences do not seem to be related to differences in patterns of government expenditure. Many public programs, in rural Peru and elsewhere, ask that the intended beneficiaries “participate” as a means of building trust and social capital, increasing the sustainability of investments, and helping self-target investments to the poor. Volunteering may have important benefits in terms of building social capital, and encouraging greater ownership of development projects. The results in this paper suggest, however, that encouraging participation by potential beneficiaries is unlikely to be an effective form of self-targeting, since people with a higher opportunity cost of time volunteer more. Moreover, social programs which require participation may have difficulty reaching some particularly vulnerable groups, such as women or the illiterate. * Economist, Latin America and the Caribbean Region, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management, The World Bank. 1 I would like to thank Christina Paxson, Phillip Saunders, William Maloney, John Waterbury, and David Yuravlivker for many useful comments. The usual disclaimer applies. Please address correspondence to the author at [email protected]. The views and interpretations expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and interpretations of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent.