A warm glow in the after life? The determinants of charitable bequests

Michael Sanders and Sarah Smith

The Centre for Market and Public Organisation from The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK

Abstract: Using a unique field experiment we show that prompts to leave money to charity during the will-making process substantially increase the probability of making a bequest. Asking if the donor wants to leave money to charity doubles the proportion making a bequest; adding emotional and social cues trebles it. The responses are strongest among childless people. We compare the effects of the prompts to the effect of an estates tax. Our results suggest that both economic and non-pecuniary incentives similarly affect whether people leave money to charity, but are less effective where people have strong preferences for other bequests.

Keywords: charitable giving; charitable bequests; prompts; social norms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D64 H24 H41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2014-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bri:cmpowp:14/326

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