Current Project

Participatory Budgeting and Tax Compliance in a Weak State: Evidence from Sierra Leone

There is a large section of literature arguing that expanded trust can drive greater tax compliance, but most studies focus on messaging and outreach interventions. By contrast, this project works with the Freetown City Council to implement a full-blown programme of participatory budgeting for a share of property tax revenues, and then tracks the impact of participation on attitudes and tax compliance.

Researchers

Abou Bakarr Kamara

Abou Bakarr Kamara is a Country Economist for the International Growth Centre (IGC) Liberia and Sierra Leone. He is an economist with over 10 years experience in both research and policy.

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.

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.

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.
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