IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/soceco/v45y2013icp113-123.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Timing of death and the repeal of the Swedish inheritance tax

Author

Listed:
  • Eliason, M.
  • Ohlsson, H.

Abstract

In response to the repeal of the Swedish inheritance tax people postponed death to avoid taxes. This is an example of the far-reaching behavioral effects of economic incentives and of unintended consequences of policy changes. Using individual data, including information on taxable estates, we find that deceased with, compared to those without, tax incentives to postpone death were 10 percentage points more likely to die the day after rather than the day before the repeal. An extended analysis suggests that the timing of deaths was affected not only during these two days but during a longer surrounding period.

Suggested Citation

  • Eliason, M. & Ohlsson, H., 2013. "Timing of death and the repeal of the Swedish inheritance tax," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 113-123.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:45:y:2013:i:c:p:113-123
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2013.05.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053535713000802
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socec.2013.05.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Neugart & Henry Ohlsson, 2013. "Economic incentives and the timing of births: evidence from the German parental benefit reform of 2007," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(1), pages 87-108, January.
    2. Joshua Gans & Andrew Leigh, 2009. "The millennium bub," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(14), pages 1467-1470.
    3. Tamm, Marcus, 2013. "The Impact of a Large Parental Leave Benefit Reform on the Timing of Birth around the Day of Implementation," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 75(4), pages 585-601.
    4. Miccinesi, Guido & Fischer, Susanne & Paci, Eugenio & Onwuteaka-Philipsen, Bregje D & Cartwright, Colleen & van der Heide, Agnes & Nilstun, Tore & Norup, Michael & Mortier, Freddy, 2005. "Physicians' attitudes towards end-of-life decisions: a comparison between seven countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(9), pages 1961-1974, May.
    5. Gans Joshua S & Leigh Andrew, 2006. "Did the Death of Australian Inheritance Taxes Affect Deaths?," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 6(1), pages 1-9, November.
    6. Gans, Joshua S. & Leigh, Andrew, 2009. "Born on the first of July: An (un)natural experiment in birth timing," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1-2), pages 246-263, February.
    7. Eliason, Marcus & Ohlsson, Henry, 2008. "Living to save taxes," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 100(3), pages 340-343, September.
    8. Wojciech Kopczuk & Joel Slemrod, 2003. "Dying to Save Taxes: Evidence from Estate-Tax Returns on the Death Elasticity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(2), pages 256-265, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Dood en belastingen
      by Marco in eco.nomie.nl on 2010-06-02 20:43:04
    2. Timing death with tax changes
      by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2010-05-06 19:06:00
    3. Now that’s a tax review
      by Joshua Gans in Core Economics on 2010-05-06 00:46:13

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elinder Mikael & Erixson Oscar & Ohlsson Henry, 2012. "The Impact of Inheritances on Heirs' Labor and Capital Income," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-37, December.
    2. Michael Neugart & Henry Ohlsson, 2013. "Economic incentives and the timing of births: evidence from the German parental benefit reform of 2007," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(1), pages 87-108, January.
    3. Liam J.A. Lenten & Jan Libich & Petr Stehlík, 2013. "Policy Timing and Footballers' Incentives," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 14(6), pages 629-655, December.
    4. Oscar Erixson, 2017. "Health responses to a wealth shock: evidence from a Swedish tax reform," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 30(4), pages 1281-1336, October.
    5. Magnus Henrekson & Daniel Waldenström, 2016. "Inheritance taxation in Sweden, 1885–2004: the role of ideology, family firms, and tax avoidance," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 69(4), pages 1228-1254, November.
    6. Bradley, Sebastien, 2018. "Assessment limits and timing of real estate transactions," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 360-372.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michael Neugart & Henry Ohlsson, 2013. "Economic incentives and the timing of births: evidence from the German parental benefit reform of 2007," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(1), pages 87-108, January.
    2. Schulkind, Lisa & Shapiro, Teny Maghakian, 2014. "What a difference a day makes: Quantifying the effects of birth timing manipulation on infant health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 139-158.
    3. Beatrice Brunner & Andreas Kuhn, 2014. "Announcement effects of health policy reforms: evidence from the abolition of Austria’s baby bonus," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 15(4), pages 373-388, May.
    4. Bradley, Sebastien, 2018. "Assessment limits and timing of real estate transactions," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 360-372.
    5. Sara LaLumia & James M. Sallee & Nicholas Turner, 2015. "New Evidence on Taxes and the Timing of Birth," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 7(2), pages 258-293, May.
    6. Beatrice Brunner & Andreas Kuhn, 2011. "Financial Incentives, the Timing of Births, Birth Complications, and Newborns’ Health: Evidence from the Abolition of Austria’s Baby Bonus," NRN working papers 2011-16, The Austrian Center for Labor Economics and the Analysis of the Welfare State, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    7. Joshua S. Gans & Andrew Leigh, 2012. "Bargaining Over Labour: Do Patients Have Any Power?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 88(281), pages 182-194, June.
    8. Huang, Cheng & Zhang, Shiying & Zhao, Qingguo & Lin, Yan, 2021. "Dragon year superstition, birth timing, and neonatal health outcomes," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    9. Hendrik Jürges, 2017. "Financial incentives, timing of births, and infant health: a closer look into the delivery room," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 18(2), pages 195-208, March.
    10. Corinna Frodermann & Katharina Wrohlich & Aline Zucco, 2020. "Parental Leave Reform and Long-Run Earnings of Mothers," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1847, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    11. Brunner, Beatrice & Kuhn, Andreas, 2011. "Financial Incentives, the Timing of Births, Birth Complications, and Newborns' Health: Evidence from the Abolition of Austria's Baby Bonus," IZA Discussion Papers 6141, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Andreas Thiemann, 2015. "Pension Wealth and Maternal Employment: Evidence from a Reform of the German Child Care Pension Benefit," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1499, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    13. Joshua Gans & Andrew Leigh, 2009. "The millennium bub," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(14), pages 1467-1470.
    14. Caroline Chuard & Patrick Chuard‐Keller, 2021. "Baby bonus in Switzerland: Effects on fertility, newborn health, and birth‐scheduling," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(9), pages 2092-2123, September.
    15. Gans, Joshua S. & Leigh, Andrew, 2009. "Born on the first of July: An (un)natural experiment in birth timing," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1-2), pages 246-263, February.
    16. Huang, Cheng & Zhang, Shiying & Zhao, Qingguo, 2020. "The early bird catches the worm? School entry cutoff and the timing of births," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    17. Beatrice Brunner & Andreas Kuhn, 2011. "Financial incentives, the timing of births, birth complications, and newborns' health: Evidence from the abolition of Austria's baby bonus," ECON - Working Papers 048, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    18. Nicolas Moreau, 2023. "The zero effect of income tax on the timing of birth: some evidence on French data," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 30(3), pages 757-783, June.
    19. Natalia Danzer & Victor Lavy, 2018. "Paid Parental Leave and Children's Schooling Outcomes," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(608), pages 81-117, February.
    20. Frodermann, Corinna & Wrohlich, Katharina & Zucco, Aline, 2023. "Parental Leave Policy and Long-run Earnings of Mothers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Behavioral responses to taxes; Estate tax; Inheritance tax; Tax avoidance; Mortality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:45:y:2013:i:c:p:113-123. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620175 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.