Volunteering, Mental Health, and Pro-Sociality: Evidence From England's National Health Service

PBS Department Seminar Series

Does volunteering improve the mental health and pro-sociality of volunteers? We exploit the NHS and Care Volunteer Responders programme in England, which features oversubscription of volunteers to tasks and random task allocation via a mobile app, providing a causal field-experimental design. Linking bespoke survey data to administrative records for over 11,000 volunteers, we find that volunteering significantly reduces symptoms of depression and anxiety (–0.146 SD on a composite mental ill health index) and increases generalised trust towards strangers (0.095 SD). Effects are concave in task intensity and fade within two to four months. Community services drive mental health gains, while chat services cultivate trust, suggesting distinct mechanisms. Volunteering also increases future engagement by 28 percentage points. The programme achieves a benefit-cost ratio of approximately 31:1.

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