Revisiting the price elasticity of charitable giving : meta-analysis of tax incentives and matching donations

This paper presents the first quantitative meta-analysis of the price elasticity of charitable giving under both rebate and matching schemes. We compile 151 elasticity estimates from 33 experimental studies and synthesize them using random-effects and multi-level models. Charitable giving is highly price-responsive: the pooled meta-analytic mean elasticity of total donations is -1.25, indicating that lowering the effective price of giving substantially increases charitable revenue. Although we observe considerable between-study heterogeneity and some evidence of publication bias, bias-adjusted estimates remain negative. Furthermore, elasticity is substantially more negative under matching (-1.98) than under rebate (-0.87), contradicting the theoretical prediction of equivalence but aligning with the original experimental findings in this literature. The rebate-matching difference is attenuated when moving from laboratory to field settings, although it persists.