Simon Essig Aberg
Simon Essig Aberg
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I am a Business Economics Ph.D. student at Harvard University.
My fields are public economics and econometrics. My research focuses on philanthropy & the charitable sector, policy design & implementation, and empirical methodology.
Working Papers
Working Papers
"Tax Elasticities of Top Donors: Evidence from Family Foundations" (2026). Reject and resubmit, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.
Charitable giving in the United States is increasingly concentrated among a small number of top donors, many of whom give through a family foundation. Using a novel database of foundation tax filings, I document facts about top donors, estimate how they respond to tax incentives over time, and evaluate the welfare effects of policy changes. I focus on two sets of tax incentives: the tax subsidy for a donor’s contributions to their foundation, and the tax penalty imposed if a foundation’s charitable disbursements average less than 5% of assets. I employ a new approach to identify short-run responses to these tax incentives. I then translate those estimates into dynamic elasticities using a new model-based method. I find that a 1% increase in the tax subsidy for contributions would increase contributions to foundations by 0.67% in present value terms, but would only raise charitable disbursements by 0.37%. Additionally, I find that a one percentage point increase in the 5% minimum payout rate would increase charitable disbursements by 0.33% in present value terms, primarily financed by foundation assets. I discuss how these findings relate to recent legislative proposals regarding the regulation of foundations and related charitable vehicles. "Tax Elasticities of Top Donors: Evidence from Family Foundations" (2026). Reject and resubmit, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.
Publications
Publications
(with Olivier Darmouni and Juha Tolvanen). Accepted, RAND Journal of Economics.
(with Brian Baisa). Journal of Economic Theory: Volume 230, 106094.
Resources
Resources
(with Isaiah Andrews and Jesse M. Shapiro). Github repository accessible at https://github.com/JMSLab/Young2019.
(with Isaiah Andrews and Jesse M. Shapiro). Github repository accessible at https://github.com/JMSLab/Young2019.
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