This research programme seeks to address four overlapping questions through a combination of (a) randomized controlled interventions in the reform programme, (b) exploiting discontinuities in the implementation of reform to identify causal impacts, (c) systematic tracing of the impact of the reform programme on popular attitudes and behaviours, and (d) the mapping of compliance data across the city against a broad set of political and economic information. Each question will be subject to its own logic, and research interventions, but those interventions will also be overlapping, such that we can study potential interactions between the different interventions, and the potential existence of the virtuous cycles discussed above. Aside from the analytical advantages of studying these questions in parallel, combining them will also imply substantial cost efficiencies (and greater analytical power) as it will allow us to rely on a single large household survey at the baseline and endline in order to evaluate a wide range of outcomes of interest. The four broad questions are as follows: Understanding the drivers of compliance Understanding the impact of reform on engagement and accountability Understanding the impact of reform on political authority and legitimacy Understanding the political economy of reform

Researchers

Wilson Prichard

Wilson Prichard is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, Chair of the Local Government Revenue Initiative (LoGRI) and former Executive Officer of the International Centre for Tax and Development (2020-2024). His research focuses on the relationship between taxation and citizen demands for improved governance in sub-Saharan Africa.

Niccoló Meriggi

Niccoló Meriggi is a country economist for IGC (International Growth Centre) Sierra Leone. He has been working in Sierra Leone for three years, where he has been engaging and advising government on the implementation of development programmes, strategies to evaluate programme implementation, and the use of lessons learnt from these programmes.

Julian Michel

Julian Michel is a PhD student in Comparative Politics at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). He has a range of research projects on topics such as taxation, migration, populism & democratic backsliding, and identity politics.

Kevin Grieco

Kevin Grieco is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. He studies how low-capacity governments raise taxes and enforce policies. His current work focuses on fiscal capacity and traditional political institutions in Sierra Leone, collects original quantitative and qualitative data, uses field experiments to answer causal questions, and involves collaborations with local government and civil society partners.