The Politics of Donations: Are Red Counties More Donative Than Blue Counties? said:
Before we discuss our results, it is important to acknowledge that, as with all research, this study is subject to several limitations. First, our measure of philanthropic giving is the aggregate amount of people’s charitable contributions on their tax returns. This is limited for a couple reasons. First, not all people who make charitable donations itemized their tax returns, potentially underestimating the overall level of charitable contributions. However, Deb, Wilhelm, Rooney, and Brown (2003) estimated that itemized contributions account for 60% of total contributions. Second, it is conceivable that itemized donations capture, at least in part, charitable donations that provide high levels of private benefit, such as neighborhood associations, sports clubs, and churches. Likewise, our measure of tax burden is based on itemized returns and does not capture the content and aim of government spending—whether it is redistributive public spending policies or other types of government efforts, such as spending on infrastructure and economic development. Future analysis might link specific types of government spending (e.g., infrastructure or social welfare) with philanthropic behaviors in the community (e.g., donations to religious, education, arts, or social service organizations). Finally, we are not testing how political ideology affects the charitable behavior of households. Rather, we explore a place based phenomenon by aggregating individual-level characteristics to the county level.