On Tax Efforts and Colonial Heritage in Africa

Thandika Mkandawire

No 2010:10, Arbetsrapport from Institute for Futures Studies

Abstract:

One commonly observed phenomena about taxation in Africa are regional differences and the fact that southern African countries have higher levels of shares of taxation in GDP. This article argues that the major source of differences in ‘tax effort’ is the colonial histories of various countries. Using standard measures of ‘tax effort in a panel data framework and dividing colonial Africa along forms of incorporation into the colonial system, it shows that African countries and others with similar colonial histories have higher levels of ‘tax effort’. However, the difference disappears when we control for the colonial factor. These results hold under different model specifications.

Keywords: taxation; GDP; regional differences; colonial histories; tax effort (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O20 O40 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2010-10-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-acc, nep-afr, nep-dev and nep-his
Note: ISSN: 1652X ISBN: 978-91-85619-71-9
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (62)

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Related works:
Journal Article: On Tax Efforts and Colonial Heritage in Africa (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:ifswps:2010_010

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