Abstract: Charitable bequests in the United States amount to $2 billion annually and account for a substantial share of the total resources devoted to education, health, science, culture, welfare and religion. The amount and composition of such bequests are affected by the rate structure and deductibility of charitable bequests in the estate tax. A model of charitable bequests is estimated on data from the 1957–1959 Treasury Special Study and the 1969 Estate Tax returns. The price elasticity of charitable bequests is considerably greater than one for all but the very largest estates. Hence, the deduction is efficient in the sense of stimulating at least as much additional giving to charity as revenue lost by the Treasury. A variety of alternative policies are simulated. Those policies raising the price of charitable bequests will substantially curtail charitable bequests. This decrease will come almost exclusively at the expense of the education-science and health-welfare sectors.
Publication Year: 1976
Publication Date: 1976-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 68
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