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Tax Incentives and Charitable Giving: Evidence from New Survey Data

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  • Eleanor Brown

Abstract

A new survey data set is used to obtain estimates of the tax price elasticity of personal giving to tax-deductible charitable causes. Like other surveys, the data here yield a large elasticity estimate, roughly two and a half for a representative household when Tobit estimation is used. One hypothesis for the discrepancy between such large estimates and values close to unity found in tax data is that there is an “itemization effect†reflecting nonrandom selection in tax data; the Florida data do not support this hypothesis. Another explanation for the discrepancy between tax-file-based and survey-based estimates is that the standard use of OLS rather than Tobit biases the elasticity more in survey data, where many people report zero gifts. For the Florida data, using OLS increases the estimated elasticity by about 30%; while this effect cannot explain why the Florida data produce such large elasticities, it suggests that OLS estimates in earlier studies should be used with caution.

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  • Eleanor Brown, 1987. "Tax Incentives and Charitable Giving: Evidence from New Survey Data," Public Finance Review, , vol. 15(4), pages 386-396, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:15:y:1987:i:4:p:386-396
    DOI: 10.1177/109114218701500402
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Clotfelter, Charles T., 1985. "Federal Tax Policy and Charitable Giving," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226110486.
    2. Reece, William S & Zieschang, Kimberly D, 1985. "Consistent Estimation of the Impact of Tax Deductibility on the Level of Charitable Contributions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(2), pages 271-293, March.
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    4. Feldstein, Martin & Clotfelter, Charles, 1976. "Tax incentives and charitable contributions in the United States : A microeconometric analysis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1-2), pages 1-26.
    5. Reece, William S, 1979. "Charitable Contributions: New Evidence on Household Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(1), pages 142-151, March.
    6. Charles T. Clotfelter, 1985. "Federal Tax Policy and Charitable Giving," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number clot85-1.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Backus, Peter, 2010. "Is charity a homogeneous good?," Economic Research Papers 270773, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    3. Backus, Peter, 2010. "Is charity a homogeneous good?," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 951, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    4. Yen, Steven T. & Boxall, Peter C. & Adamowicz, Wiktor L., 1997. "An Econometric Analysis Of Donations For Environmental Conservation In Canada," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 22(2), pages 1-18, December.
    5. Steven T Yen & Ernest M Zampelli, 2017. "Charitable Contributions of Time and Money: A Multivariate Sample Selection Approach," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 43(1), pages 43-63, January.
    6. Apinunmahakul, Amornrat & Devlin, Rose Anne, 2004. "Charitable Giving and Charitable Gambling: An Empirical Investigation," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 57(1), pages 67-88, March.

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