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Generosity Across the Income and Wealth Distributions

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  • Jonathan Meer
  • Benjamin A. Priday

Abstract

There is little systematic evidence on the relationship between income, wealth, and charitable giving, despite its importance for the provision of public goods. We use the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to provide descriptive statistics on this relationship. We report simple means, as well as ordinary least squares and fixed-effects estimates, of three observable measures of generosity: the likelihood of giving, the (log) amount given, and the percentage of income given. We find that, irrespective of specification, the propensity to donate money and the amount given increase with a household’s resources. In contrast to much of the existing literature, we show that the mean percentage of income given is relatively flat across the income distribution after accounting for a small number of extreme observations. We also discuss the characteristics of these outlier households.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Meer & Benjamin A. Priday, 2021. "Generosity Across the Income and Wealth Distributions," National Tax Journal, University of Chicago Press, vol. 74(3), pages 655-687.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:nattax:doi:10.1086/714998
    DOI: 10.1086/714998
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    Cited by:

    1. Cotofan, Maria & Dur, Robert & Meier, Stephan, 2024. "Does growing up in economic hard times increase compassion? The case of attitudes towards immigration," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 245-262.
    2. Levin, Tova & Levitt, Steven D. & List, John A., 2023. "A Glimpse into the world of high capacity givers: Experimental evidence from a university capital campaign," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 644-658.
    3. Elizabeth A. Keenan & Anne V. Wilson & Leslie K. John, 2022. "When Less is More: Consumers Prefer Brands that Donate More in Relative versus Absolute Terms," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 33(1), pages 31-43, March.
    4. Marius A. K. Ring & Thor Olav Thoresen, 2022. "Wealth Taxation and Charitable Giving," CESifo Working Paper Series 9700, CESifo.
    5. Kotsadam, Andreas & Somville, Vincent, 2024. "Wealth and charitable giving – Evidence from an Ethiopian lottery," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    6. Wan, Hua & Zhang, Chunli & Huang, Chang & Wang, Yan, 2024. "Regional criminal offense rates, labor mobility, and firms’ financial generosity," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).

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