The Effect of the Treasury Proposal on Charitable Giving: A Comparison of Constant and Variable Elasticity Models

The recent proposal for tax reform developed by the Department of the Treasury suggests dramatic changes in the structure of the personal income tax. One likely side effect of the changes will be a significant adverse impact on the level of charitable contributions by individuals.This paper evaluates the marginal effect on giving of various parts of the Treasury reform plan using the existing literature on the price and income elasticities of charitable behavior. Two explicit models are simulated for 1985 using the NBER TAXSIM model: one with constant price and income elasticities and one with the price and income elasticities varying with income.