Dr. Julia Paxton
WOUB interviewed Dr. Julia Paxton, Professor of Economics at Ohio University, about her Economics of Altruism course for The Kindness Podcast.
“One way to be kind is with your wallet, donating to charities and people in need. But giving can get confusing in a hurry if you’re not aware of the economics of altruism. Dr. Julie Paxton is equipping students to give responsibly through her course, “Economics of Altruism” at Ohio University. We’re joined by Dr. Julie Paxton and two of her students, Alex Wainwright and Alex Armstrong to learn more about being kind financially,” says the podcast description.
“In economics we look at the decision-making process that people go through in order to allocate their time, their money…what makes people decide to donate money or to be selfish or to be generous…. If we think of decision making and the decision to be kind to someone, to be generous, is ultimately a decision to use your scare resources—time, money—to help somebody else. Economics is a behavioral science, so it makes sense that we would look at both kindness as well as greed,” Paxton said.
Paxton described the $10,000 grant that the Economics of Altruism class awards to a local non-profit. “It’s actually a repeating gift, so every time I teach the class we give away $10,000” from a Warren Buffett Learning by Giving Foundation.
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