
22 UNU-WIDER articles, publications, projects, experts...
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Journal Article
The impact of intergovernmental transfers on local revenue generation in Sub-Saharan AfricaDo intergovernmental transfers reduce revenues collected by local government authorities (LGAs)? There is already a well-established body of literature in public finance, which argues that intergovernmental grants “crowd out” local revenues. Most...
Blog
Inequality, fiscal space, and crisis response — A matter of priority, affordability, or both?
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments financed more than 5000 fiscal support policies worldwide in 2020–21. The pandemic response is an...
Blog
Tax revenues and tax capacity in sub-Saharan AfricaAfrican countries raise lower amounts of tax as a share of national income (GDP) than other countries. Researchers are interested in understanding why...
Blog
State assigned property rights and revenue collection in sub-Saharan AfricaAcross sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries there are striking differences in citizen willingness to pay taxes. For example, in Mali, Senegal, and...
Working Paper
Fiscal capacity in non-democratic states: the origins and expansion of income taxThe origins of fiscal capacity have traditionally been linked to warfare and democratization. However, non-democratic states also invest in fiscal capacity, even in times of peace. In fact, the majority of income taxes—a cornerstone of government...
Working Paper
Taxless fiscal statesHow do modern fiscal states arise? Perhaps the most dominant explanation, based on the European experience, is that democratic institutions that limited the extractive power of states—exemplified by the 1688 Glorious Revolution in England—paved the...
Working Paper
No taxation without informational foundationThis paper combines cross-national statistical analysis and in-depth historical case studies of Argentina and Chile to explore the relationship between two crucial dimensions of state capacity. We show that information capacity contributes to the...
Working Paper
What are the drivers of tax capacity in sub-Saharan Africa?There is limited research on the underlying institutional framework of tax policy and capacity: how tax collection efficiency changes over time and the importance of institutional factors in this process. This paper fills this gap by devising a...
Working Paper
Fiscal capacity and social protection expenditure in developing nationsThere is scant analysis on the causal relationship between fiscal capacity and social protection expenditure in the developing world. We investigate the causal relationship between fiscal capacity of the state and social protection expenditure...
Working Paper
Party system institutionalization and reliance on personal income taxThis paper explores the effect of party system institutionalization on the reliance of tax systems on the personal income tax. As a first step, the paper re-examines the relationship between party system institutionalization and taxation patterns...
Journal Article
Fiscal capacity in non-democratic statesPart of Journal Special Issue Fiscal state capacity
Blog
Developing countries would benefit from improved tax collection: What can help?The ability to raise revenues from taxes – called “fiscal capacity” – is a crucial aspect for the functioning of any state. Being able to tax citizens...
Blog
How can developing countries pay for the SDGs?With official development assistance under strain, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals will require developing countries to rely increasingly...