Global Evidence on Effective Design of Tax Incentives for Charitable Giving René Bekkers, VU Amsterdam Sigrid Hemels, Erasmus University Rotterdam Pamala Wiepking, Lilly Family School of Philanthropy Femida Handy, University of Pennsylvania 47th ARNOVA Conference, Austin, November 15, 2018
Global questions How do tax incentives for nonprofit organizations vary between countries? How do countries offering different tax incentives for nonprofit organizations vary in the level and nature of generosity? What is the effectiveness of different forms of support to nonprofit organizations? November 15, 2018 47th ARNOVA Conference
Two types of government support Indirect grants: a reduction of government income, e.g., tax rebate: government supports citizens who support charities Direct grants: paid out of the government budget, e.g., subsidy to nonprofit organizations, or a matching grant: government supports the charities that citizens support November 15, 2018 47th ARNOVA Conference
Four forms of indirect grants 1. Deduction from taxable income US, Germany, Japan, Australia, Mexico, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark 2. Tax credit Canada, Israel, France 3. Tax refund to charity UK 4. Tax assignment Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Italy November 15, 2018 47th ARNOVA Conference
Consider a €1,000 gift Country Special circumstance Tax benefit Net cost of gift USA 50% cap 220 780 Germany 20% cap 475 525 Netherlands 10% cap 409 591 Cultural charity 511 489 France 66% deductible 666 333 Canada 75% of income 262 738 UK Gift Aid 250 750 November 15, 2018 47th ARNOVA Conference
Data sources International Individual Database of Philanthropy (IIPD), 2003-2007 November 15, 2018 47th ARNOVA Conference
November 15, 2018 47th ARNOVA Conference
Average amounts donated in $ (2012) from the International Individual Database of Philanthropy (IIPD), 2003-2007 November 15, 2018 47th ARNOVA Conference
Are tax laws encouraging? A little. r = .211 November 15, 2018 47th ARNOVA Conference
Are tax laws encouraging? Maybe more than just a little: r=.329 unconditional amount (including non-donors; ln) r=.405 donors only (ln) November 15, 2018 47th ARNOVA Conference
Are tax laws encouraging? 493 173 66 90 r=.329 unconditional amount (including non-donors; ln) r=.405 donors only (ln) November 15, 2018 47th ARNOVA Conference
Next steps Do the multi-level regression analysis Add country level control variables Find natural experiments across the world Analyze longitudinal data November 15, 2018 47th ARNOVA Conference
Multi-level regression results November 15, 2018 47th ARNOVA Conference
Multi-level results by quartile November 15, 2018 47th ARNOVA Conference
Experimenting with the law Optimal design: assign a tax reform to a randomly chosen group of citizens and withhold it from a randomly chosen group of other citizens Feasible alternative: create a hypothetical economy in the lab and observe giving behavior This could be used to forecast effects of alternative tax reforms November 15, 2018 47th ARNOVA Conference
Natural experiments Less optimal: observe a parallel universe in which a tax reform is not introduced Feasible alternative: plot the trend before the introduction, see if it changes afterwards November 15, 2018 47th ARNOVA Conference
Behavioral science perspective The power of defaults: people often don’t go to the trouble of making an active choice When the law changes the default, citizens automatically change their behavior without much thought Example: when the default for post mortem organ donation changes from no to yes, only a low percentage actively opt out November 15, 2018 47th ARNOVA Conference
UK: inefficiency of Gift Aid November 15, 2018 47th ARNOVA Conference
Denmark: automatic deduction After Before No deduction Deduction Default effect Tax evasion effect November 15, 2018 47th ARNOVA Conference
November 15, 2018 47th ARNOVA Conference
Next steps Do the multi-level regression analysis Add country level control variables Find natural experiments across the world Analyze longitudinal data November 15, 2018 47th ARNOVA Conference
Contact: René Bekkers Center for Philanthropic Studies VU University Amsterdam r.bekkers@vu.nl Blog: http://renebekkers.wordpress.com Twitter: @renebekkers