IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/3273.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Impact of Tax Reform on Charitable Giving: A 1989 Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Charles T. Clotfelter

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the predicted effects of tax reform in the 1980s (the tax acts of 1981 and 1986) on charitable contributions by individuals and to compare them to the actual and apparent effects, viewed from the perspective of 1989. The paper discusses what the economic models can and cannot be expected to do. Then, using published data from tax returns, the paper compares actual and predicted changes in giving as a result of both of the major tax reform acts. The paper concludes that the changes in contributions are quite consistent with the economic model of giving. As a result of these tax changes, average giving in high income classes declined. These results imply that tax policy should continue to be considered one important determinant of the level of individual charitable contributions.

Suggested Citation

  • Charles T. Clotfelter, 1990. "The Impact of Tax Reform on Charitable Giving: A 1989 Perspective," NBER Working Papers 3273, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:3273
    Note: PE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w3273.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Don Fullerton, 1991. "Tax Policy Toward Art Museums," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Art Museums, pages 195-236, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Charles T. Clotfelter, 1985. "The effect of tax simplification on educational and charitable organizations," Conference Series ; [Proceedings], Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, vol. 29, pages 187-221.
    3. Feldstein, Martin S & Taylor, Amy, 1976. "The Income Tax and Charitable Contributions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(6), pages 1201-1222, November.
    4. Slemrod, Joel, 1989. "Are Estimated Tax Elasticities Really Just Tax Evasion Elasticities? The Case of Charitable Contributions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 71(3), pages 517-522, August.
    5. Glenday, Graham & Gupta, Anil K & Pawlak, Henry, 1986. "Tax Incentives for Personal Charitable Contributions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 68(4), pages 688-693, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Perroni, Carlo & Scharf, Kimberley & Talavera, Oleksandr & Vi, Linh, 2021. "Online Salience and Charitable Giving : Evidence from SMS Donations," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1325, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    2. Ribar, David C. & Wilhelm, Mark O., 1995. "Charitable Contributions to International Relief and Development," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 48(2), pages 229-244, June.
    3. James Andreoni, 1998. "Toward a Theory of Charitable Fund-Raising," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1186-1213, December.
    4. Giedre Lideikyte Huber & Marta Pittavino, 2022. "Who donates and how? New evidence on the tax incentives in the canton of Geneva, Switzerland," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(3), pages 758-797, September.
    5. Yörük Bariş K., 2015. "Do Charitable Subsidies Crowd Out Political Giving? The Missing Link between Charitable and Political Contributions," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 15(1), pages 407-435, January.
    6. Roman M. Sheremeta & Neslihan Uler, 2021. "The impact of taxes and wasteful government spending on giving," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 24(2), pages 355-386, June.
    7. Margaret E. Brehm, 2018. "The Effects of Federal Adoption Incentive Awards for Older Children on Adoptions From U.S. Foster Care," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(2), pages 301-330, March.
    8. Sanjit Dhami & Ali al-Nowaihi, 2011. "Competitive Charitable Giving and Optimal Public Policy with Multiple Equilibria," Discussion Papers in Economics 11/37, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    9. Cordes, Joseph J., 2011. "Re-Thinking the Deduction for Charitable Contributions: Evaluating the Effects of Deficit-Reduction Proposals," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 64(4), pages 1001-1024, December.
    10. John A. List, 2011. "The Market for Charitable Giving," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(2), pages 157-180, Spring.
    11. Perroni, Carlo & Scharf, Kimberley & Talavera, Oleksandr & Vi, Linh, 2022. "Does online salience predict charitable giving? Evidence from SMS text donations," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 134-149.
    12. Barış K. Yörük, 2013. "The Impact of Charitable Subsidies on Religious Giving and Attendance: Evidence from Panel Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(5), pages 1708-1721, December.
    13. Whitaker, Amy & Kräussl, Roman, 2023. "Art collectors as venture capitalists," CFS Working Paper Series 696, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    14. V. Kerry Smith & Sharon L. Harlan & Michael McLaen & Jacob Fishman & Carlos Valcarcel & Marcia Nation, 2015. "Compassion or Cash: Evaluating Survey Response Incentives and Valuing Public Goods," NBER Working Papers 21288, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Baris Yoruk, 2013. "Are Generous People More Likely to Vote?," Discussion Papers 13-10, University at Albany, SUNY, Department of Economics.
    16. Ackerman, Deena & Auten, Gerald, 2011. "Tax Expenditures for Noncash Charitable Contributions," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 64(2), pages 651-687, June.
    17. de Bartolome, Charles A. M., 1995. "Which tax rate do people use: Average or marginal?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 79-96, January.
    18. Neslihan Uler, 2011. "Public goods provision, inequality and taxes," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 14(3), pages 287-306, September.
    19. Uler, Neslihan, 2009. "Public goods provision and redistributive taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(3-4), pages 440-453, April.
    20. Sanjit Dhami & Ali al-Nowaihi, 2012. "Philanthropy, multiple equilibria and optimal public policy," Discussion Papers in Economics 12/08, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.

    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. Backus, Peter, 2010. "Is charity a homogeneous good?," Economic Research Papers 270773, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    2. Backus, Peter, 2010. "Is charity a homogeneous good?," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 951, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    3. Peter G. Backus & Nicky L. Grant, 2019. "How sensitive is the average taxpayer to changes in the tax-price of giving?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 26(2), pages 317-356, April.
    4. Asatryan, Zareh & Joulfaian, David, 2022. "Taxes and Business Philanthropy in Armenia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 914-930.
    5. O'Neil, Cherie J. & Steinberg, Richard S. & Thompson, G. Rodney, 1996. "Reassessing the Tax-Favored Status of the Charitable Deduction for Gifts of Appreciated Assets," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 49(2), pages 215-33, June.
    6. Yermack, David, 2009. "Deductio' ad absurdum: CEOs donating their own stock to their own family foundations," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 107-123, October.
    7. O'Neil, Cherie J. & Steinberg, Richard S. & Thompson, G. Rodney, 1996. "Reassessing the Tax-Favored Status of the Charitable Deduction for Gifts of Appreciated Assets," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 49(2), pages 215-233, June.
    8. Ribar, David C. & Wilhelm, Mark O., 1995. "Charitable Contributions to International Relief and Development," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 48(2), pages 229-244, June.
    9. David Joulfaian & Mark Rider, 2003. "Errors in Variables and Estimated Price Elasticities for Charitable Giving," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0307, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    10. Grubert, Harry & Newlon, T. Scott, 1996. "Reply to Avi-Yonah," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 49(2), pages 267, June.
    11. Peter Backus & Nicky Grant, 2016. "Consistent Estimation of the Tax-Price Elasticity of Charitable Giving with Survey Data," Economics Discussion Paper Series 1606, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    12. World Bank, 2005. "Global Economic Prospects 2006 : Economic Implications of Remittances and Migration," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7306.
    13. Grubert, Harry & Newlon, T. Scott, 1996. "Reply to Avi-Yonah," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 49(2), pages 267-267, June.
    14. Don Fullerton, 1991. "Tax Policy Toward Art Museums," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Art Museums, pages 195-236, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Auten, Gerald & Joulfaian, David, 1996. "Charitable contributions and intergenerational transfers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 55-68, January.
    16. Haim Falk, 1992. "Towards a framework for not†for†profit accounting," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(2), pages 468-499, March.
    17. Wunnava, Phanindra V. & Lauze, Michael A., 2001. "Alumni giving at a small liberal arts college: evidence from consistent and occasional donors," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 533-543, December.
    18. Robison, Lindon J. & Hanson, Steven D., 1995. "Social Capital and Economic Cooperation," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(1), pages 43-58, July.
    19. Keval Amin & Erica Harris, 2022. "The Effect of Investor Sentiment on Nonprofit Donations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 175(2), pages 427-450, January.

    More about this item

    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:nbr:nberwo:3273. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.