CULTURE CHANGE IS HARD: Evidence from a tax reform in the Netherlands

Abstract

In 2012, the government of the Netherlands reformed the tax law on charitable donations. The legal reform enhanced the deductibility of gifts to cultural nonprofit organizations and allowed cultural nonprofit organizations to earn more commercial income. The goal of the reform was nothing less than a culture change: the cultural nonprofit sector should reduce its historical dependency on government grants, become more entrepreneurial and increase philanthropic giving by private donors and corporations. Using data from the Giving in the Netherlands surveys, we first examine how giving behavior by households and corporations has changed after the tax reform. We find that giving to culture has increased but probably not as a result of the reform. Among cultural nonprofit organizations, we see an increase in entrepreneurial orientations but not more diversification of income. We also observe a Matthew effect – increasing differences between organizations because larger organizations were more successful in attracting other forms of income. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of the findings for academic research on tax incentives for philanthropy and entrepreneurship in nonprofit organizations, as well as for policy makers.