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What is the Real Relationship between Income and Charitable Giving?

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Mcclelland

    (Congressional Budget Office)

  • Arthur C. Brooks

    (Syracuse University)

Abstract

Many studies have focused on the relationship between income and charitable donations either by comparing income and percentage of income donated to construct a “giving curve†or by calculating the income elasticity of giving. In this article, the authors relate these two types of studies to one another, using 1997 Consumer Expenditure Survey data. They show that giving curves and elasticity models measure different phenomena and investigate ways that the information in each might be combined to enrich future studies of charitable giving.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Mcclelland & Arthur C. Brooks, 2004. "What is the Real Relationship between Income and Charitable Giving?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 32(5), pages 483-497, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:32:y:2004:i:5:p:483-497
    DOI: 10.1177/1091142104266973
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. James J. Heckman, 1976. "The Common Structure of Statistical Models of Truncation, Sample Selection and Limited Dependent Variables and a Simple Estimator for Such Models," NBER Chapters, in: Annals of Economic and Social Measurement, Volume 5, number 4, pages 475-492, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Randolph, William C, 1995. "Dynamic Income, Progressive Taxes, and the Timing of Charitable Contributions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(4), pages 709-738, August.
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    Cited by:

    1. Nisvan Erkal & Lata Gangadharan & Nikos Nikiforakis, 2011. "Relative Earnings and Giving in a Real-Effort Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(7), pages 3330-3348, December.
    2. Benediktson, Mathias Nylandsted, 2018. "Investigating the U-Shaped Charitable Giving Profile Using Register-Based Data," DaCHE discussion papers 2018:1, University of Southern Denmark, Dache - Danish Centre for Health Economics.
    3. Massimo Florio & Francesco Giffoni & Gelsomina Catalano, 2020. "Should governments fund basic science? Evidence from a willingness-to-pay experiment in five universities," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(1), pages 16-33, January.
    4. Adena, Maja, 2021. "Tax-price elasticity of charitable donations – evidence from the German taxpayer panel," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 219-235.
    5. Simixhiu, Amantia & Ziegler, Andreas, 2018. "On the relevance of income and behavioral factors for absolute and relative donations: A framed field experiment," VfS Annual Conference 2018 (Freiburg, Breisgau): Digital Economy 181600, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    6. Nelson, Katherine M. & Schlüter, Achim & Vance, Colin, 2017. "Distributional preferences and donation behavior among marine resource users in Wakatobi, Indonesia," Ruhr Economic Papers 690, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    7. Rosalina Palanca-Tan & Nelson Matthew P. Tan, 2023. "Charitable Giving Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Philippine Context," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 29(1), pages 49-62, May.
    8. Sinha, Shameek & Malik, Sumit & Mahajan, Vijay & ter Hofstede, Frenkel, 2025. "Retain, reactivate or acquire: Can nonprofits reliably use community profiles as an alternative to past donation data?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    9. Hyeon Park, 2023. "Giving and volunteering over a lifecycle," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 335-369, March.
    10. Sargeant, Adrian & Ford, John B. & West, Douglas C., 2006. "Perceptual determinants of nonprofit giving behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 155-165, February.
    11. Alzuabi, Raslan & Brown, Sarah & Taylor, Karl, 2022. "Charitable behaviour and political affiliation: Evidence for the UK," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    12. Krishnamurthy, Sandeep & Tripathi, Arvind K., 2009. "Monetary donations to an open source software platform," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 404-414, March.
    13. Gelsomina CATALANO & Massimo FLORIO & Francesco GIFFONI, 2016. "Willingness to Pay for Basic Research: A Contingent Valuation Experiment on the Large Hadron Collider," Departmental Working Papers 2016-03, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    14. Honggao Cao, 2006. "Time and Financial Transfers Within and Beyond the Family," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 375-400, June.

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