Dr Philip Mader

Research Fellow

Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)

Philip Mader is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies and works with the ICTD on the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) research theme. His research areas include political economy, finance and development, youth employment, financialisation, financial inclusion and, more broadly, market-oriented interventions in development.

Publications

Policy Brief

Digital Public Infrastructure and Tax: High Stakes, High Rewards

October 2025
Daisy Ogembo, Philip Mader & Fabrizio Santoro
Policy Brief

Taxing Mobile Money in Africa: Risk and Reward

July 2024
Martin Hearson, Philip Mader, Mary Abounabhan, Marco Carreras, Awa Diouf, Adrienne Lees, Hannelore Niesten, Fabrizio Santoro & Christopher Wales
Working Paper

What are the Enablers and Impacts of Digital Financial Services? An Updated Evidence Gap Map

July 2024
Philip Mader, Keir Macdonald, Maren Duvendack, Mary Abounabhan, Celeste Scarpini & Hemangi Sharma
Research in Brief

What are the Enablers and Impacts of Digital Financial Services? An Updated Evidence Gap Map

July 2024
Philip Mader, Keir Macdonald, Maren Duvendack, Mary Abounabhan, Celeste Scarpini & Hemangi Sharma
Working Paper

Enablers, Barriers and Impacts of Digital Financial Services: Insights from an Evidence Gap Map and Implications for Taxation

June 2022
Philip Mader, Maren Duvendack, Adrienne Lees, Aurelie Larquemin & Keir Macdonald
Working Paper

Electoral Competitiveness, Political Budget Cycles and Taxation in Developing Countries

September 2014
Wilson Prichard
See all Related Publications

Blogs

See all blogs
Ugandan landscape shot with a small hut in left foreground, lakes centre and right background and a yellow sign that read mobile money airtime selling in front of the hut
October 2022|
Blog

How should Africa’s digital payments be taxed?

by Philip Mader

Africa’s governments need tax revenue to fund everything from education and social welfare to paying international debts. No wonder governments are eyeing digital financial services (DFS) – a rapidly growing, highly profitable industry – for additional revenue….
NextBillion EGM
August 2022|
Blog

To tax or not to tax mobile money? The impact on digital financial services in Africa and beyond

by Adrienne Lees & Philip Mader

“Designing better tax policies for DFS requires understanding the factors that enable using DFS, and its potential impacts” writes Adrienne Lees & Philip Mader in their first blog for the ICTD….

Research Projects

Completed Project

Evidence Gap Map on Digital Financial Services: Enablers, Barriers, and Impacts

Philip Mader, ICTD, Maren Duvendack, Adrienne Lees, ICTD, Aurelie Larquemin & Keir Macdonald, IDS
Completed Project

How to approach the taxation of Digital financial services? A framework to understand and assess tax policies on digital financial services

Laura Munoz, ICTD, Mick Moore, ICTD & Phil Mader, Institute of Development Studies
See all Related Projects
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