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Showing 13 - 24 of 48 publications
January 2019

Policy Implementation Under Stress: Central-Local Government Relations in Property Tax Administration in Tanzania

by Odd-Helge Fjeldstad, Merima Ali & Lucas Katera

Purpose Inter-organisational cooperation in revenue collection has received limited attention in the tax administration literature. Recent experiences from Tanzania offer a unique opportunity to examine opportunities and challenges facing such cooperation between central and local government agencies in a developing country context. The administration of property taxes (PT) in Tanzania has been oscillating between decentralised…

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November 2018

China’s Challenge to International Tax Rules and the Implications for Global Economic Governance

by Martin Hearson & Wilson Prichard

Twentieth century institutions of global economic governance face a profound challenge adapting to the rise of emerging markets and, especially, China’s rise. This is especially the case for the international tax regime, whose institutional home is the OECD and which is based on norms that favour capital exporting states. To understand the nature of the…

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October 2018

Informal Taxation in Sierra Leone: Magnitudes, Perceptions and Implications

by Vanessa van den Boogaard, Wilson Prichard & Samuel Jibao

In low-income countries, citizens often pay ‘taxes’ that differ substantially from what is required by statute. These non-statutory taxes are central to financing both local public goods and maintaining informal governance institutions. This study captures the incidence of informal taxation and taxpayer perspectives on these payments. We find, first, that informal taxes are a prevalent…

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September 2018

Does Fiscal Decentralization Enhance Citizens’ Access to Public Services and Reduce Poverty? Evidence from Côte d’Ivoire Municipalities in a Conflict Setting

by Tiangboho Sanogo

Fiscal decentralization has been implemented in many countries with an explicit objective of improving public service delivery and reduce poverty. However, its effectiveness in achieving these goals are much debated and the empirical literature has mostly focused on poverty reduction using cross-country analysis. This paper analyses whether, and how, the devolution of revenue raising responsibilities…

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August 2018

Norms, Networks, Power and Control: Understanding Informal Payments and Brokerage in Cross-Border Trade in Sierra Leone

by Vanessa van den Boogaard, Wilson Prichard & Samuel Jibao

Recent research has cast light on the variety of informal payments and practices that govern the day-to-day interactions between traders and customs agents at border posts in low-income countries. Building on this literature, this paper draws on survey and qualitative evidence in an effort to explore which groups are most advantaged and disadvantaged by the…

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July 2018

True Values

by Nyah Zebong & Wilson Prichard

Where property markets are still developing, there is little sales data on which to base valuations. As a result, it is more difficult to assign accurate property valuations, there is greater scope for abuse, and these valuations are more likely to be contested.In peri-urban or rural areas where property markets are almost non-existent, a value…

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May 2018

Building support for taxation in developing countries: Experimental evidence from Mexico

Drawing on insights from the literature on institutional design—how rules shape behavior to achieve desired outcomes—this article examines how certain design features of taxes—such as allowing for civil society oversight, earmark mechanisms that direct tax revenue for a specific purpose, and sunset provisions that make the duration of taxes finite—affect political support for tax reforms….

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March 2018

Tax revenue mobilization in conflict-affected developing countries

by Vanessa van den Boogaard, Wilson Prichard, Nikola Milicic & Matthew Benson

How does conflict affect tax revenue mobilization? This paper uses a newly updated dataset to explore longitudinal trends of tax revenue mobilization prior to, during, and after conflict periods in a selection of conflict-affected states since 1980. This medium-N trend analysis is complemented by prototypical case study analysis, which provides greater insight into the relationship…

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March 2018

Special Issue: Fiscal Policy, State Building and Economic Development

by Edited by: Tony Addison, Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, Jukka Pirttilä

The latest issue of the Journal of International Development is a special issue on Fiscal Policy, State Building and Economic Development, which features work by ICTD researchers and partners. All the articles are open access. Introduction Fiscal Policy, State Building and Economic Development  Tony Addison, Miguel Niño-Zarazúa & Jukka Pirttilä This article presents a synopsis of…

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October 2017

Urban Fortunes and Skeleton Cityscapes: Real Estate and Late Urbanization in Kigali and Addis Ababa

by Tom Goodfellow

In many parts of Africa, societies that remain primarily rural are experiencing accelerated urban growth and highly visible booms in property development. In the absence of significant industrialization, investment is pouring directly into what Lefebvre and Harvey characterized as the ‘secondary circuit’ of capital. Debates about the drivers of investment in real estate are longstanding…

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September 2017

Improving the performance of natural resource taxation in developing countries

by Michael C. Durst

This paper explores the administrative challenges posed to developing countries as a result of the increasing emphasis in fiscal regimes for natural resource extraction since the Second World War on income-based taxes, including both corporate income and resource rent taxes, as opposed to royalties. The paper identifies both the political consequences and technical challenges (particularly…

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