Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Volunteer labor plays a critical role in supporting nonprofit organizations, prompting nonprofit scholars to develop various methods for quantifying the monetary value of volunteer hours. Unfortunately, this monetary valuation has been inappropriately extended into regional input-output models, creating highly exaggerated economic outputs. This Economic Letter shows how treating non-monetized hours as direct sales, output, or labor income generates phantom secondary spending and overstates economic impact. We argue that economists must isolate non-market civic contributions from actual regional cash flows, applying impact models strictly to observable shifts in market transactions, cost savings, and disposable income.
DOI: 10.68479/001c.173255
Authors: Andrew Crawley, Elinor Hunt, Todd Gabe
Institution: University of Maine
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7223948442