There has been growing public attention to the accumulation and spending of endowments in recent years. Scholars have offered different theories on the objective of endowments that have different implications for endowment spending. Yet, there are limited empirical studies and they mostly focus on universities. Using the Form 990 data between 2009 and 2016, this study examines how endowments are actually spent for four types of operating charities, including museums, universities, hospitals, and K‐12 schools. The descriptive results show that there are considerable cross‐sectional differences in endowment characteristics across these types of organizations. The fixed effects analyses further demonstrate different types of organizations have different payout responses to changes in endowment returns, non‐endowment income, and contributions to endowment. However, the study does not find any empirical evidence that organizations use endowments as rainy day funds. This article extends the understanding on endowment spending behavior from universities to other types of operating charities that also hold endowments. The findings provide empirical evidence that may inform the existing debate on endowment spending and have practical implications for endowment management.

中文翻译：

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一个下雨天的ow赋？经营公共慈善机构捐赠支出的实证分析

近年来，公众越来越关注捐赠的积累和支出。学者们对of赋的目标提出了不同的理论，这些理论对end赋支出产生了不同的影响。然而，实证研究很少，而且它们主要集中在大学上。本研究使用2009年至2016年之间的990表格数据，研究了捐赠资金如何实际用于四种类型的运营慈善机构，包括博物馆，大学，医院和K-12学校。描述性结果表明，在这些类型的组织中，end赋特征的横截面差异很大。固定效应分析进一步表明，不同类型的组织对捐赠收益，非捐赠收入，以及对捐赠的贡献。但是，该研究没有发现任何经验证据表明组织使用捐赠资金作为雨天资金。本文将对大学的捐赠支出行为的理解扩展到了也持有捐赠的其他类型的运营慈善机构。这些发现提供了经验证据，可以为有关捐赠支出的现有辩论提供参考，并且对捐赠管理具有实际意义。