Charities and the political support for estate taxation

Abstract

We explain why wealthy people often favor estate taxation, while wealthless people oppose it. Wealthy people devote part of their estate to charities. Estate taxation with tax breaks for charities increases contributions to an otherwise underprovided public good.

Reference

Georges Casamatta, Helmuth Cremer, and Pierre Pestieau, “Charities and the political support for estate taxation”, Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 115, n. 1, 2012, pp. 423–426.