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Should Egalitarians Expropriate Philanthropists?

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  • Dasgupta, Indraneel
  • Kanbur, Ravi

Abstract

Wealthy individuals often voluntarily provide public goods that the poor also consume. Such philanthropy is commonly perceived as legitimizing one’s wealth. Governments routinely exempt the rich from taxation on grounds of their charitable expenditures. We examine the logic of this exemption. We show that, rather than reducing inequality, philanthropy may actually exacerbate absolute inequality, while leaving the change in relative inequality ambiguous. Additionally, philanthropic preferences may increase the effectiveness of policies to redistribute income, instead of weakening them. Consequently, from an egalitarian perspective, the general case for exempting the wealthy from expropriation, on grounds of their public goods contributions, appears dubious.

Suggested Citation

  • Dasgupta, Indraneel & Kanbur, Ravi, 2007. "Should Egalitarians Expropriate Philanthropists?," Working Papers 126999, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:cudawp:126999
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.126999
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    Cited by:

    1. Dasgupta Indraneel, 2011. "Mother or Child? Intra-household Redistribution under Gender-Asymmetric Altruism," Journal of Globalization and Development, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 1-27, August.
    2. Indraneel Dasgupta, 2007. "Women or Children? Intra-household redistribution under gender-asymmetric altruism," Discussion Papers 07/10, University of Nottingham, CREDIT.
    3. Dasgupta, Indraneel & Kanbur, Ravi, 2007. "Community and class antagonism," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(9), pages 1816-1842, September.
    4. Atkinson, A.B., 2009. "Giving overseas and public policy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(5-6), pages 647-653, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Institutional and Behavioral Economics; Public Economics;

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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