IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/joecin/v15y2017i1d10.1007_s10888-016-9344-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Attitudes towards inheritance taxation – results from a survey experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Christiane Gross

    (University of Hanover)

  • Kerstin Lorek

    (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg)

  • Friedemann Richter

    (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg)

Abstract

Inheritance taxation divides public opinion and is among the most unpopular taxes in many countries, although only a minority of people have to pay it. Using a survey experiment with vignettes on a sample of German citizens (N = 479), we examine attitudes towards inheritance taxation. Our results reveal several relevant dimensions for a proposed fair inheritance tax rate (PITR): The PITR decreases with a close relationship between testator and heir and when the asset is a family-occupied house or family enterprise compared with a “lump sum”. It increases with the value of bequest and income of the heir representing equity considerations. Respondents advocate higher tax rates to reduce fiscal budget deficits. Respondents with a strong family orientation propose a low inheritance tax rate.

Suggested Citation

  • Christiane Gross & Kerstin Lorek & Friedemann Richter, 2017. "Attitudes towards inheritance taxation – results from a survey experiment," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 15(1), pages 93-112, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joecin:v:15:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s10888-016-9344-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s10888-016-9344-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10888-016-9344-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10888-016-9344-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Musgrave, Richard A, 1969. "Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Theory of Public Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 7(3), pages 797-806, September.
    2. Benno Torgler, 2002. "Speaking to Theorists and Searching for Facts: Tax Morale and Tax Compliance in Experiments," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(5), pages 657-683, December.
    3. Alesina, Alberto & La Ferrara, Eliana, 2005. "Preferences for redistribution in the land of opportunities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(5-6), pages 897-931, June.
    4. Sandra E Black & Paul J Devereux & Petter Lundborg & Kaveh Majlesi, 2020. "Poor Little Rich Kids? The Role of Nature versus Nurture in Wealth and Other Economic Outcomes and Behaviours," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 87(4), pages 1683-1725.
    5. Kirchler, Erich & Hoelzl, Erik & Wahl, Ingrid, 2008. "Enforced versus voluntary tax compliance: The "slippery slope" framework," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 210-225, April.
    6. N. Gregory Mankiw & Matthew Weinzierl & Danny Yagan, 2009. "Optimal Taxation in Theory and Practice," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(4), pages 147-174, Fall.
    7. Black, Sandra E. & Devereux, Paul J., 2011. "Recent Developments in Intergenerational Mobility," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 16, pages 1487-1541, Elsevier.
    8. William G. Gale & Joel B. Slemrod, 2001. "Rethinking the Estate and Gift Tax: Overview," NBER Working Papers 8205, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Alberto Alesina & Guido Cozzi & Noemi Mantovan, 2012. "The Evolution of Ideology, Fairness and Redistribution," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 122(565), pages 1244-1261, December.
    10. Cremer, Helmuth & Pestieau, Pierre, 2006. "Wealth transfer taxation: a survey of the theoretical literature," Handbook on the Economics of Giving, Reciprocity and Altruism, in: S. Kolm & Jean Mercier Ythier (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Giving, Altruism and Reciprocity, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 16, pages 1107-1134, Elsevier.
    11. Houben, Henriette & Maiterth, Ralf, 2009. "Inheritance tax-exempt transfer of German businesses: Imperative or unjustified subsidy? An empirical analysis," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 95, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    12. Ruben Durante & Louis Putterman & Joël Weele, 2014. "Preferences For Redistribution And Perception Of Fairness: An Experimental Study," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 1059-1086, August.
    13. Sandra E Black & Paul J Devereux & Petter Lundborg & Kaveh Majlesi, 2020. "Poor Little Rich Kids? The Role of Nature versus Nurture in Wealth and Other Economic Outcomes and Behaviours," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 87(4), pages 1683-1725.
    14. O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), 2011. "Handbook of Labor Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 4, number 4.
    15. Miles Corak, 2013. "Income Inequality, Equality of Opportunity, and Intergenerational Mobility," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(3), pages 79-102, Summer.
    16. O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), 2011. "Handbook of Labor Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 4, number 5.
    17. Gregory Clark & Neil Cummins, 2015. "Intergenerational Wealth Mobility in England, 1858–2012: Surnames and Social Mobility," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 125(582), pages 61-85, February.
    18. Torgler, Benno & Demir, Ihsan C. & Macintyre, Alison & Schaffner, Markus, 2008. "Causes and Consequences of Tax Morale: An Empirical Investigation," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 313-339, September.
    19. Solon, Gary, 1992. "Intergenerational Income Mobility in the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(3), pages 393-408, June.
    20. A. Mitchell Polinsky & Steven Shavell (ed.), 2007. "Handbook of Law and Economics," Handbook of Law and Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 2, number 2.
    21. Guglielmo Barone & Sauro Mocetti, 2011. "Tax morale and public spending inefficiency," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 18(6), pages 724-749, December.
    22. Alm, James & McClelland, Gary H. & Schulze, William D., 1992. "Why do people pay taxes?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 21-38, June.
    23. Krawczyk, Michal, 2010. "A glimpse through the veil of ignorance: Equality of opportunity and support for redistribution," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1-2), pages 131-141, February.
    24. repec:bla:jecsur:v:16:y:2002:i:5:p:657-83 is not listed on IDEAS
    25. A. Mitchell Polinsky & Steven Shavell (ed.), 2007. "Handbook of Law and Economics," Handbook of Law and Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    26. Ira Mark Ellman & Sanford Braver & Robert J. MacCoun, 2009. "Intuitive Lawmaking: The Example of Child Support," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(1), pages 69-109, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Abraham, Martin & Lorek, Kerstin & Richter, Friedemann & Wrede, Matthias, 2018. "Breaking the norms: When is evading inheritance taxes socially acceptable?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 85-102.
    2. Alessandro Spiganti, 2020. "Inequality of opportunity, inequality of effort, and innovation," Economics Working Papers MWP 2020/02, European University Institute.
    3. Bellani, Luna & Berriochoa, Kattalina & Kapteina, Mark & Schwerdt, Guido, 2024. "Information Provision and Support for Inheritance Taxation: Evidence from a Representative Survey Experiment in Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 17099, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Lekfuangfu, Warn N. & Powdthavee, Nattavudh & Riyanto, Yohanes E., 2023. "Luck or rights? An experiment on preferences for redistribution following inheritance of opportunity," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 106(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christiane Gross & Kerstin Lorek & Friedemann Richter, 2017. "Attitudes towards inheritance taxation – results from a survey experiment," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 15(1), pages 93-112, March.
    2. Guido Neidhöfer, 2019. "Intergenerational mobility and the rise and fall of inequality: Lessons from Latin America," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 17(4), pages 499-520, December.
    3. Colin C. Williams, 2023. "A Modern Guide to the Informal Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 18668.
    4. Lekfuangfu, Warn N. & Odermatt, Reto, 2022. "All I have to do is dream? The role of aspirations in intergenerational mobility and well-being," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    5. Pickhardt, Michael & Prinz, Aloys, 2014. "Behavioral dynamics of tax evasion – A survey," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1-19.
    6. Philipp Ager & Leah Boustan & Katherine Eriksson, 2021. "The Intergenerational Effects of a Large Wealth Shock: White Southerners after the Civil War," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(11), pages 3767-3794, November.
    7. J. Ignacio Gimenez-Nadal & José Alberto Molina & Yu Zhu, 2018. "Intergenerational mobility of housework time in the United Kingdom," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 911-937, December.
    8. Stefanie Heidrich, 2017. "Intergenerational mobility in Sweden: a regional perspective," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 30(4), pages 1241-1280, October.
    9. Adrian Adermon & Mikael Lindahl & Daniel Waldenström, 2018. "Intergenerational Wealth Mobility and the Role of Inheritance: Evidence from Multiple Generations," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(612), pages 482-513, July.
    10. Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Dahmann, Sarah C. & Salamanca, Nicolás & Zhu, Anna, 2022. "Intergenerational disadvantage: Learning about equal opportunity from social assistance receipt," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    11. JaeYoul Shin, 2018. "Relative Deprivation, Satisfying Rationality, and Support for Redistribution," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(1), pages 35-56, November.
    12. Abdurrahman B. Aydemir & Hakki Yazici, 2017. "Intergenerational Education Mobility and the Level of Development: Evidence from Turkey," Koç University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum Working Papers 1717, Koc University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum.
    13. Giacomin Favre & Joël Floris & Ulrich Woitek, 2018. "Intergenerational mobility in the 19th century: micro-level evidence from the city of Zurich," ECON - Working Papers 274, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    14. Towfiqul Islam Khan & Muntaseer Kamal & Faiyaz Talukdar, 2019. "Potential of Personal Income Tax in Bangladesh: An Examination of Survey Data," CPD Working Paper 126, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
    15. Driouchi, Ahmed & Gamar, Alae, 2016. "The Gap between Educational & Social Intergenerational Mobility in Arab Countries," MPRA Paper 73998, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Orhan Torul & Oguz Oztunali, 2017. "Intergenerational Educational Mobility in Europe," Working Papers 2017/03, Bogazici University, Department of Economics.
    17. Bönke Timm & Neidhöfer Guido, 2018. "Parental Background Matters: Intergenerational Mobility and Assimilation of Italian Immigrants in Germany," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 19(1), pages 1-31, February.
    18. M. Shahe Emran & William Greene & Forhad Shilpi, 2018. "When Measure Matters: Coresidency, Truncation Bias, and Intergenerational Mobility in Developing Countries," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 53(3), pages 589-607.
    19. Cappelen, Alexander & Liu, Yiming & Nielsen, Hedda & Tungodden, Bertil, 2024. "Fairness in a Society of Unequal Opportunities," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 17/2024, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:joecin:v:15:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s10888-016-9344-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.