Public Spending and Volunteering: "The Big Society", Crowding Out, and Volunteering Capital Koen P.R. Bartels  , Guido Cozzi y , Noemi Mantovan z March 19, 2011 Abstract The current British Governments "Big Society" plan is based on the idea that granting more freedom to local communities and volunteers will compensate for a withdrawal of public agencies and spending. This idea is grounded on a widely held belief about the relationship between gov- ernment and volunteering: a high degree of government intervention will cause a crowding out of voluntary activity. Up to now, however, the crowd- ing out hypothesis has hardly been supported by any empirical evidence or solid theoretical foundations. We develop a simple theoretical model to predict how scal policy a/ects the individual decision to volunteer or not. The predictions of the model are tested through the econometric analysis of two survey data sets, and interpretative analysis of narratives of local volunteers and public o¢cials. Contrary to conventional wisdom, our results suggest that volunteering, by the individuals in the actively working population, declines when government intervention is decreased. Keywords : volunteering, labor supply, public goods, altruism. JEL Classication: H31, H41, J22, I38, D64.  Adam Smith Building, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8RT, UK. Email: k.bartels.1@research.gla.ac.uk y Durham Business School, Room 118. Mill Hill Lane. Durham, DH1 3LB, UK. Email: guido.cozzi@durham.ac.uk z Durham Business School, Mill Hill Lane, Durham, DH1 3LB, UK. Email: noemi.mantovan@durham.ac.uk 1