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Information Provision on Tax Benefits for Charitable Giving

Last registered on April 09, 2019

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Information Provision on Tax Benefits for Charitable Giving
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0003658
Initial registration date
February 18, 2019

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
February 18, 2019, 9:17 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated
April 09, 2019, 12:10 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
ESMT Berlin

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2019-03-04
End date
2019-06-04
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Most governments of developed countries offer some form of tax benefits to encourage charitable giving. The efficacy of such policies eventually depends on whether donors are attentive towards these policies and what (mis)perception donors have. A rich tax literature has demonstrated that consumers are inattentive to value-added taxes when they are not salient and that individuals have misperceptions concerning complex tax incentives. There is little evidence whether salience and information provision of tax deductions might matter for donations. Furthermore, it is not clear whether the results from previous studies in the tax literature that test for salience and information provision would translate to charitable giving, since making extrinsic incentives more salient could potentially crowd out intrinsic motivation. Whether more salient tax incentives and information provision could induce donors to give more is therefore an empirical question. This research project aims to answer this question by conducting an online field experiment on Germany's largest online platform for charitable giving. The intervention will take place on the payment page of the platform, where potential donors decide how much they wish to donate, after which they should fill in the required fields and complete the payment for the donation. For each website visitor, I exogenously vary whether information is provided on tax benefits.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Teirlinck, Marrit. 2019. "Information Provision on Tax Benefits for Charitable Giving." AEA RCT Registry. April 09. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.3658-6.0
Former Citation
Teirlinck, Marrit. 2019. "Information Provision on Tax Benefits for Charitable Giving." AEA RCT Registry. April 09. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/3658/history/44794
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
In the treatment group the potential donor is will receive information on tax benefits for donations in Germany. The intervention is implemented on the payment page of the platform and the information will be provided at the moment when the donor is deciding for the amount to donate. The control group will see the regular payment page as it is currently set up on the platform without any information on tax deductions for donations.
Intervention Start Date
2019-03-04
Intervention End Date
2019-06-04

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The average donation.
Intrinsic margin: average donations conditional on donating.
Extrinsic margin: the donation rate.
Changes in the distribution of donations across treatment.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
The experimental data will be supplemented with income data at the district level. This will be used to analyze whether responsiveness to the information treatment is different across income levels.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The intervention will take place on the payment page of the platform, where the potential donors decides for their final donation amount, completes the required fields and completes the payment for the donation. For each website visitor, I exogenously vary the
information that is displayed on tax deductions.
Treatment 1: Control Group. Visitors that are assigned to the control group will see the regular payment page as it is currently set up on the platform, without any information on tax deductions for donations.
Treatment 2: Information Provision on Tax Savings. In the treatment group the potential donor is will receive information on tax benefits for donations in Germany. An approximated tax savings amount is displayed, which is based on the average earner in Germany, and is dependent on the donation amount the donor picks. Additionally the donor can select a different income bracket in a drop down menu to obtain an more precise approximation according to his or her income bracket.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
randomization done by a computer
Randomization Unit
website session level
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
about 120.000 observations
Sample size: planned number of observations
about 120.000 observations
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
about 60.000 per group
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Power calculations are calculated using data from previous experiments run on the platform. The main outcome of interests is the average donation across treatments. The standard deviation of the average donation in the sample was 15.5 euro. With 60.000 observations, the minimum detectable effect size is 0.0162 standard deviation for the average donation (alpha = 0. 5, power = 80%).
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Research Evaluation Committee ESMT Berlin
IRB Approval Date
2019-01-30
IRB Approval Number
N/A

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials