Recent years have witnessed rapidly growing donor interest in tax issues in the developing world. This reflects a concern with revenue collection to finance public spending, but also recognition of the centrality of taxation to growth, redistribution and broader state-building and governance goals. Against this backdrop, this paper identifies a series of key issues that…
Read moreAny investment that involves unrecoverable costs relies on the good faith of the government not to raise taxes after costs have been incurred. Unfortunately, features inherent within the political economy of natural resource industries, and particularly within poor countries, makes a stable investment environment difficult to achieve. Indeed, some suggest that countries may fall into…
Read moreIn Africa, as elsewhere in the world, politics is decisive for change, but poorly understood, sometimes neglected and often depicted using rigid models. The new book ‘Perspectives on Politics, Production and Public Administration in Africa: Essays in Honour of Ole Therkildsen’ seeks to dig below the surface and do justice to the complexity of the politics…
Read moreAlthough increasingly justified in terms of statebuilding, recent tax reforms in anglophone Africa contributed only modestly to that goal. They have produced impressive tax agencies, but no detectable increases in revenue collections. They have not addressed some major deficiencies in tax policy and administration. The reforms have however helped improve the career prospects for senior…
Read moreThis paper reviews the state of knowledge on local government revenue systems in Africa, with a particular emphasis on commonalties and differences between Francophone and Anglophone countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The analysis focuses on the composition of local government ‘own’ revenues, administrative practices, and how the current system affects economic efficiency and accountability. It is…
Read moreDeveloping countries face increasing environmental pressures across a range of dimensions. At the same time, the capacity of these governments to effectively pursue policy goals is often constrained by a lack of resources, with tax revenues in many countries being half of what is common in developed economies. For some, these are distinct issues that…
Read moreWithin the development field, tax administration reform is an area of relative success. Over the past two decades, the national revenue systems of most countries in anglophone Africa have undergone major reforms. These comprise, in particular, the introduction of Value Added Tax (VAT), the adoption of ‘advanced’ tax administration practices, and the creation of semi-autonomous…
Read moreThis is the second issue of the Special Series on GPSM, “The Changing Politics of Tax Policy Reform in Developing Countries” by Mick Moore is now available online. Recent History: The Pessimistic View One of the most thorough tax reforms in recent history began in Peru in 1991.1 The government simultaneously fired most of the…
Read moreThe governance-and-development agenda that has dominated thinking since the collapse of the Soviet Bloc is fast losing credibility. It continues to be associated with a set of countries, ideas and experiences – the ‘West’ – that no longer enjoy global leadership. It has not usefully identified the role of governments in promoting economic growth. And…
Read moreTaxation is fundamental to sustainable development, as it supports the basic functions of an effective state and sets the context for economic growth. More often overlooked is the role of taxation as a catalyst for the development of responsive and accountable government, and for the expansion of state capacity. Recent research has begun to focus…
Read moreThere is a widespread concern that, in some parts of the world, governments are unable to exercise effective authority. When governments fail, more sinister forces thrive: warlords, arms smugglers, narcotics enterprises, kidnap gangs, terrorist networks, armed militias. Why do governments fail? This book explores an old idea that has returned to prominence: that authority, effectiveness,…
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