Blood Type and Blood Donation Behavior

ISER Discussion Paper No. 1029

53 Pages Posted: 22 May 2018 Last revised: 10 Jun 2020

See all articles by Shusaku Sasaki

Shusaku Sasaki

Center for Infectious Disease Education and Research, Osaka University

Yoshifumi Funasaki

Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics

Hirofumi Kurokawa

School of Economics and Management

Fumio Ohtake

Osaka University - Center for Infectious Disease Education and Research

Date Written: June 8, 2020

Abstract

We empirically investigated how voluntary helping behavior is influenced by the number of its potential recipients by using a nationwide survey in Japan (N = 1,333) and examining the relationship between blood type and blood donation behavior. It is generally known in Japan that type O blood can be medically transfused to individuals of all blood groups; therefore, the potential transfusion recipients’ number of the type O blood is the largest among the four blood groups. Our empirical analysis revealed that people with type O blood were more likely to have donated blood in the past than those with the other blood types. This association was stronger in a subsample of individuals who had knowledge relating to the above-mentioned widespread utility of type O blood. In addition, our empirical analysis arrested the concern that potential blood-type differences in altruistic attitudes might explain their differences in blood donation behavior, by confirming that type O blood was not significantly related to other altruistic behaviors (i.e., registration for bone-marrow donation, intention to donate organs, and making monetary donations) or attitudes (i.e., general trust, altruism, reciprocity, and agreeableness). After conducting further analyses, we concluded that the vast number of potential recipients of type O blood causes different patterns of Japanese people’s blood donation behavior across the four blood groups. This study added to the literature the real-world evidence concerning how having many potential recipients affect people’s behavior of providing common goods..

Keywords: Inborn quality, ABO blood group, blood donation, common pool resource

JEL Classification: I10, D64, C30

Suggested Citation

Sasaki, Shusaku and Funasaki, Yoshifumi and Kurokawa, Hirofumi and Ohtake, Fumio, Blood Type and Blood Donation Behavior (June 8, 2020). ISER Discussion Paper No. 1029, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3171957 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3171957

Shusaku Sasaki (Contact Author)

Center for Infectious Disease Education and Research, Osaka University ( email )

2-1 Yamadaoka
Suita, Osaka 565-0871
Japan

HOME PAGE: http://ssasaki.weebly.com/

Yoshifumi Funasaki

Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics ( email )

Osaka Prefecture
Japan

Hirofumi Kurokawa

School of Economics and Management ( email )

Japan

Fumio Ohtake

Osaka University - Center for Infectious Disease Education and Research ( email )

1-7 Machikaneyamacho
Toyonaka
Osaka, 560-0043
Japan

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