In his letter of Dec. 21, Bill Timken Jr. "guesses" that a decline in estate taxes would give charitable donations a boost. He guesses correctly. My co-authors, Professors David R. Kamerschen and Richard H. Timberlake Jr., and I have confirmed in a study published in the American Journal of Economics and Sociology, July 2010, that a decline in estate tax rates will produce an increase, and not a decrease as popularly believed, in donations at death. It turns out that expanded wealth, and not tax deductibility, is the primary driver of donation increases.
This finding is one of the best kept secrets of the academic profession.
William Beranek
Aiken, S.C.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 