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November 2021

Assessing the Equity and Redistributive Effects of Taxation Reforms in Nigeria

by Henry C. Edeh

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of poverty and inequality reduction through redistribution have indeed become critical concerns in many low- and middle-income countries, including Nigeria. Although redistribution results from the effect of tax revenue collections, micro household-level empirical analyses of the distributional effect of personal income tax (PIT) and value added tax (VAT) reforms…

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July 2021

Fuel subsidy reform and the social contract in Nigeria: A micro-economic analysis

by Neil McCulloch, Tom Moerenhout & Joonseok Yang

Fuel subsidies in Nigeria are enormous – around USD 3.9 billion – almost double the health budget. Such subsidies come at great cost: the opportunity costs of such spending on other development objectives are large; the distribution of resources to the state governments is reduced; the vast majority of the subsidy goes to better off Nigerians; and…

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June 2021

The Role of Social Influence in Enforcing Tax Compliance: Experimental Evidence from Nigeria

by Adedeji Adeniran, Mma Amara Ekeruche & Chukwuka Onywkwena

Economic development is linked with increased state capacity including the ability to mobilise domestic tax resources. For many developing countries, high levels of informality are a major constraint in this regard. Yet, economic incentives like changing the tax rate or increasing the filling and audit rate can be ineffective in a highly informal economic structure….

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June 2021

More on the Positive Fiscal and Health Effects of Increasing Tobacco Taxes in Nigeria

by Corné van Walbeek, Adedeji Adeniran & Iraoya Augustine

Nigeria is faced with substantial economic and health burdens caused by tobacco smoking. The economic burden of smoking accounts for approximately 1.3 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP. In terms of its health impact, 4.9 per cent of all deaths in 2019 were attributed to smoking related diseases. The thousands of Nigerians that die annually from…

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August 2020

Building a Social Contract? Understanding Tax Morale in Nigeria

by Neil McCulloch, Tom Moerenhout & Joonseok Yang

An important part of every country’s development process is the building of a social contract in which citizens pay tax and, in turn, receive public goods and services. Evidence suggests that this is associated with the establishment of a norm of tax payment and a belief that non-payment is wrong. We exploit a new, nationally…

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July 2020

Thick claims and thin rights: Taxation and the construction of analogue property rights in Lagos

by Tom Goodfellow & Olly Owen

The importance of tenure security for development and wellbeing is often reduced to questions about how titles can guarantee rights, overlooking the contested and layered nature of property rights themselves. We use the case of Lagos to analyse property rights as ‘analogue’ rather than ‘digital’ in nature – things that only exist by degree, where…

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June 2020

The Taxation of the Digitalised Economy: An African Study

by Mustapha Ndajiwo

The advent of digitalised business models has considerable potential to improve trade in Africa, however, it has greatly exacerbated the two central challenges of international tax. The first challenge is the definition of taxable presence, and the second is the allocation of business profits of multinational enterprises (MNEs) among the different jurisdictions where they operate….

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March 2020

Fuel Subsidy Reform and the Social Contract in Nigeria: a Micro-economic Analysis

by Neil McCulloch, Tom Moerenhout & Joonseok Yang

Fuel subsidies in Nigeria are enormous. At last estimate, the state subsidises gasoline to the tune of USD 3.9 billion — almost double the entire health budget. Subsidies exist because the government fixes the price of gasoline for consumers below the international price and uses government resources to pay for the difference. They were first…

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February 2020

Small Business Owners and Corporate Tax Responsibility in Nigeria: An Exploratory Study

by Kenneth Amaeshi, Bongo Adi & Godson Ikiebey

This study explores how small business owners talk about their tax responsibility, especially in non-enabling institutional contexts. It identifies two main types of tax responsibility discourses amongst these business owners: (1) duty-based and (2) rights-based. The duty-based talks see taxation primarily as the citizens’ responsibility to governments, which should always be fulfilled unconditionally, while rights-based…

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January 2020

Fuel Subsidy Reform and the Social Contract in Nigeria: a Micro-economic Analysis

by Neil McCulloch, Tom Moerenhout & Joonseok Yang

Fuel subsidies in Nigeria are enormous. At last estimate, the state subsidises petrol to the tune of US$3.9 billion – almost double the entire health budget. Such subsidies come at great cost: the opportunity costs of such spending on other development objectives are large; the distribution of resources to the state governments is reduced; the…

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September 2019

Small Business Owners and Corporate Tax Responsibility in Nigeria: An Exploratory Study

by Kenneth Amaeshi, Bongo Adi & Godson Ikiebey

This study explores how small business owners talk about their tax responsibility, especially in non-enabling institutional contexts. It identifies two main types of tax responsibility discourses amongst these business owners: (1) duty-based and (2) rights-based. The duty-based talks see taxation primarily as the citizens’ responsibility to governments, which should always be fulfilled unconditionally, while rights-based…

Read more
August 2019

Nigeria: No longer an oil state?

by Sarah Burns & Olly Owen

While there is much speculation about Nigeria’s probably post-oil future, it is in fact already a present reality: In 2015, for the first time since 1971, Nigeria’s public finances had already earned more from non-oil sources than from oil revenues. The transformation to a post-oil future is already in the past.

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