Skip to content

Main Navigation

  • Research
        • Our Research Themes
        • Tax Administration and Compliance
        • Climate and Environmental Tax
        • Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and Tax
        • Tax and Governance
        • Gender and Tax
        • Informality and Tax
        • International Tax
        • Subnational and Property Tax
        • Taxing High-Net-Worth Individuals
        • Programmes and networks
        • DIGITAX Research Programme
        • Gender and Tax Community of Practice
        • Local Govt. Revenue Initiative
        • Ethiopian Tax Research Network
        • Nigerian Tax Research Network
        • Projects
        • Datasets
        • Research Grants
  • Publications
  • News & Analysis
        • News & Events
        • Blogs
        • Media
  • Learning Portal
        • Learn With Us
        • International Tax
        • Property Taxation
        • Tax Administration and Compliance
        • Tax and Gender
        • Tax and Governance
        • Tax and Informality
  • About
        • About Us
        • Our Team
        • Our Approach
        • Contact Us
        • Newsletter

  • en
  • fr

Dr Max Gallien

Research Director

Informality and Tax Co-Lead
Teaching and Learning Co-Lead

Max Gallien is Research Director of ICTD. His research specialises in the politics of informal and illegal economies, the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa and development politics. He completed his PhD at the London School of Economics. Max co-leads the informality and taxation programme with Vanessa, as well as the ICTD’s capacity building programme.
Share
Home People Max Gallien

Publications

Journal Article

The Politics of Passage: Studying Checkpoints and Claim Making in Conflict-affected Settings

May 2026
Peer Schouten, Vanessa van den Boogaard, Max Gallien, Shalaka Thakur & Florian Weigand
Book

Elgar Encyclopedia of African Politics Chapter 31: Formalisation

March 2026
Max Gallien & Vanessa van den Boogaard
Journal Article

Measurement and mirage: The informal sector revisited

March 2026
Max Gallien
Working Paper

Zakat as Non-State Social Welfare Provision: Distributional Dynamics and Gender Equity in Pakistan

January 2026
Max Gallien, Umair Javed & Vanessa van den Boogaard
Working Paper

Thinking Beyond Revenue: Estimating the Cost Effectiveness of Ghana’s Presumptive Tax Stamp

December 2025
Max Gallien & Alex Kombat
Policy Brief

Why the Informal Sector Is Not a Tax Goldmine

October 2025
Max Gallien
See all Related Publications

Blogs

See all blogs
Wide shot of a series of 6 apartments complexes that are under construction in Islamabad, Pakistan
June 2025|
Blog

Pakistan’s support for wealth taxes

by Max Gallien, Umair Javed & Vanessa van den Boogaard

In a context marked by deepening fiscal constraint, wealth taxes offer a potential solution for Pakistan as they have done in many other. …

Photo of a phone screen sending mobile money load
April 2025|
Blog

Ghana’s e-levy: 3 lessons from the abolished mobile money tax

by Max Gallien, Martin Hearson & Mary Abounabhan

The e-levy’s intense politicisation and complex design made it an interesting case of a wider trend of mobile money taxes in the region. We learned more about the e-levy’s impact on informal sector workers in Accra, knowledge and sentiments, registered merchant exemptions and mobile money usage….

Wide shot of people in a street in Lahore, Pakistan.
March 2025|
Blog

Pakistanis are paying over 1.7 billion GBP in zakat every year—mostly to women

by Max Gallien, Umair Javed & Vanessa van den Boogaard

Every year, hundreds of millions of Muslims across the world pay a proportion – broadly 2,5%…

Wide shot of a large group of people facing the camera.
March 2025|
Blog

Reasons to be Optimistic about Tax and the Informal Sector

by Max Gallien & Vanessa van den Boogaard

There are many reasons to be anxious about the taxation of informal sectors in lower income…

picture of Makola market in Ghana
January 2025|
Blog

Effective and Equitable Formalisation within the Financing for Development Agenda

by Max Gallien

Max Gallien argues for key changes to the draft text of the Financing for Development outcome document, given that dominant strategies for formalising and taxing the informal economy are often ineffective and highly regressive. …

Man in protective gear throwing a box full of smuggled Malboro cigarettes in a shredding truck to destroy them.
June 2024|
Blog

Three myths on smuggling and taxes

by Max Gallien

Few topics attract as many myths and misconceptions as smuggling. As an activity that is more…

News and events

See all news and events
Event
Flyer of the webinar on roadblocks and the politics of passage
30 June 2026
Webinar: The politics of passage – New research on checkpoints and revenue in conflict

This webinar launches the Development and Change special issue, The Politics of Passage: Checkpoints and Authority amidst Conflict, drawing on the Roadblocks and Revenues research series….

News
Five individuals standing side-by-side each other, smiling at the camera.
April 2026
ICTD convenes stakeholder workshop on informal taxation in The Gambia

Earlier this month, ICTD convened a stakeholder workshop in collaboration with The Gambia’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs to discuss evidence-informed options for reforming the country’s approach to informal sector taxation….

News
Max Gallien and Vanessa van den Boogaard with the Finance Office at the Municipality of Korle Klottey in Ghana on the day of signing the new MoU
April 2026
ICTD signs new partnerships for largest study of market taxation in Accra

ICTD signs three new MOUs with municipal authorities in Ghana for a project on the taxation of Accra’s markets. …

Research Projects

Completed Project

Informal Taxation and Gender in the Informal Economy in Accra

Completed Project

The Logic of Armed Group Taxation

Completed Project

Collection Cost and Revenue: Evaluating the Cost-Effectiveness of Administration of the Tax Stamp in Ghana

Completed Project

The Politics and Practice of Tax Targets

Completed Project

The Role of Fiscal Policies in Cannabis Legalisation: Learning from Malawi’s Experience

Current Project

Informal taxation and gender in the informal economy in Accra

Max Gallien, Institute of Development Studies & Vanessa van den Boogaard, University of Toronto
See all Related Projects
[email protected]
+44 (0) 1273 606261
International Centre for Tax and Development, Institute of Development Studies (IDS) Brighton, BN1 9RE, United Kingdom
Connect with us
  • Facebook
  • Bluesky
  • Linkedin
  • YouTube
Explore
  • Our Team
  • Our Approach
  • Contact Us
  • Learn with Us
  • News & Events
  • Blogs
Join our mailing list
Our base
IDS logo
Our donors
Gates Foundation logo UKAID logo NORAD logo
© 2026 ictd.ac | Privacy Policy

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in .


Strictly Necessary Cookies

3rd Party Cookies

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

Analytics

This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.

Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.