A BEJEAP Topics article.

Abstract

In 1979, Australia abolished federal inheritance taxes. Using daily deaths data, we show that approximately 50 deaths were shifted from the week before the abolition to the week after. This amounts to over half of those who would have been eligible to pay the tax. Although we cannot rule out the possibility that our results are driven by misreporting, our results imply that over the very short run, the death rate may be highly elastic with respect to the inheritance tax rate.

Submitted: August 3, 2006 · Accepted: November 10, 2006 · Published: November 30, 2006

Originally published in Topics in Economic Analysis & Policy.

Recommended Citation

Gans, Joshua S. and Leigh, Andrew (2006) "Did the Death of Australian Inheritance Taxes Affect Deaths?," Topics in Economic Analysis & Policy: Vol. 6 : Iss. 1, Article 23.
Available at: http://www.bepress.com/bejeap/topics/vol6/iss1/art23