Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• mostafa kazeminajafabadi ¹
• Ahmad Ali Rezai ²

¹ Associate Professor of the Research Institute of Hawzah and University

² Doctoral student of economics of Al-Mustafa Al-Alamiya society

Abstract

While individualism is often perceived as a negative factor that undermines social ethics and reduces participation in charitable activities, this study proposes the hypothesis that individualism—as a set of cultural values and norms that place the individual at the center of decision-making and social responsibility—can play a positive role in enhancing the level of generosity in society. Accordingly, two mechanisms are examined: a direct mechanism, where individualism fosters personal motivations for helping others, and an indirect mechanism, in which individualism promotes economic freedom, thereby facilitating the growth of charitable activities. To empirically test this hypothesis, the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model was applied using quarterly data from Iran over the period 2010 to 2021. The results indicate that individualism has a positive and significant effect on the level of generosity; specifically, a one-percent increase in individualism leads to a 0/43 percent rise in generosity. Furthermore, economic freedom also shows a positive and significant effect, with a coefficient of 1/16 percent. The findings support both proposed mechanisms and suggest that individualism, when properly institutionalized within Iran’s cultural context, can strengthen ethical behaviors such as generosity. Additionally, the variables of economic growth, income inequality, education level, and government size were found to have positive effects, while corruption showed a negative effect on the level of generosity in Iranian society.

Keywords

• Keywords: Social norms
• Individualism
• Charitable giving

Main Subjects

• The Economy of Iran