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Maria Jouste
Research Associate
Maria Jouste is a Research Associate at UNU-WIDER, where she works on topics related to taxation and tax-benefit microsimulation models in Domestic Revenue Mobilization programme. She holds a PhD in Economics from University of Turku.
Her research interest is in development and public economics, focusing on taxation and social protection in developing countries. Her recent research has included the evaluation of tax and administrative reforms using administrative tax data from Uganda and simulating potential social protection reforms in Zambia. She has experience in curating and employing large administrative tax data in collaboration with African revenue authorities.
28 articles, publications, projects...
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Blog
Secure research data lab in Uganda: A game changer for efficient and fair taxationIn May 2022, the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) and UNU-WIDER collaboratively launched a secure research data laboratory facility in Kampala, Uganda...
Tax administration data Evidence policy analysisReport
SOUTHMOD country report Zambia - MicroZAMOD v2.12This report documents MicroZAMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Zambia. This work was carried out by Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis & Research ( ZIPAR ) in collaboration with the project partners...
Taxation Government revenue MicroZAMODTechnical Note
The Uganda Revenue Authority firm panelThis technical note describes the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) firm panel, which is constructed from administrative corporate income tax (CIT) returns and firm registration data for the financial years 2013/14–2019/20...
Tax data Corporate income tax UgandaProject
Building up efficient and fair tax systems – lessons based on administrative tax data
Theme: Transforming states
Taxation Administrative data Tax compliancePolicy Brief
A large share of the population in Zambia is living below the national poverty line, with most of them being extremely poor...
Poverty reduction Social protection ZambiaWorking Paper
Towards greater poverty reduction in Zambia: Simulating potential Cash Plus reforms using MicroZAMODA large share of the population in Zambia is living below the national poverty line...
Poverty Zambia Social protectionWorking Paper
The mitigating role of tax and benefit rescue packages for poverty and inequality in Africa amid the COVID-19 pandemicThis paper analyses the distributional effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and related tax-benefit measures in 2020 in a cross-country comparative perspective for five African countries: Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia...
COVID-19 Income distribution PovertyTechnical Note
Full-year adjustment for modelling COVID-19 policies in SOUTHMOD tax-benefit microsimulation modelsThis technical note presents a modelling approach used in Lastunen et al. (2021) where tax and benefit policies are scaled to reflect their actual duration during a single calendar year...
COVID-19 Tax-benefit microsimulation PovertyBlog
Co-creation for fair and efficient taxation: Research recommendations to improve policiesHow can we determine the taxation of wage earners or multinational corporations in a fair manner? Will simplifying tax administration help increase tax compliance in a low-income country context?...
Taxation Administrative data Domestic revenue mobilizationProject meeting
Second Cash Plus work in progress meetingUNU-WIDER's SOUTHMOD tax-benefit microsimulation team, in collaboration with the senior partners from Southern African Social Policy Research Insights ( SASPRI ) and Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research ( ZIPAR ), as well as the...
Project meeting
Cash Plus work in progress meetingUNU-WIDER's SOUTHMOD tax-benefit microsimulation team, in collaboration with the senior partners from Southern African Social Policy Research Insights ( SASPRI ) and Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research ( ZIPAR ), as well as the...
Working Paper
Do tax administrative interventions targeted at small businesses improve tax compliance and revenue collection?: Evidence from Ugandan administrative tax dataThis paper conducts an impact evaluation of the effects of two tax administration interventions—a taxpayer register expansion and education programme, and a new electronic filing system for presumptive tax—on the number of small business ...
Tax administration Small business Tax complianceWorking Paper
The effects of personal income tax reform on employees’ taxable income in UgandaWe evaluate a major personal income tax reform in Uganda that came into effect in 2012–13. The reform increased the tax-free lower threshold, increased tax rates for higher incomes, and introduced an additional highest tax band...
Personal income tax Uganda Administrative dataPresentation
Maria Jouste on Tax for DevelopmentMaria Jouste , UNU-WIDER Research Associate, will give a presentation at the Tax for Development webinar series on 17 November 2020 (CET). The webinar series is hosted by Chr. Michelsen Institute . The topic of Jouste's presentation will be...
Presentation
Maria Jouste at the North East Universities Development ConsortiumMaria Jouste , UNU-WIDER Research Associate, will present a research paper at the North East Universities Development Consortium on 6 November 2020. The virtual conference, hosted by Dartmouth College , will be held 6-7 November (EST). The topic of...
Blog
International tax research: Why does more than numbers matterCan tax research be inspiring? Looking back at the three years of collaboration between UNU-WIDER and the Uganda Revenue Authority ( URA ), the answer is yes – but even that is just the start...
Taxation Administrative data Domestic revenue mobilization