Tax Innovations and Public Revenues in Sub-Saharan Africa

Pelle Ahlerup, Thushyanthan Baskaran and Arne Bigsten ()

Journal of Development Studies, 2015, vol. 51, issue 6, 689-706

Abstract: We study the effect of two tax innovations - value added taxes (VAT) and autonomous revenue authorities (ARA) - on tax revenues in sub-Saharan Africa. The dataset consists of 47 countries over 1980-2010. We find that VATs have no effect on total tax revenues, neither in the short- nor in the long-run. ARAs lead to higher tax revenues in the short- and medium-run, but the effect dissipates over time. The main conclusion is that tax innovations are not a panacea to overcome the revenue shortages in African countries, but they are helpful in the short- and medium-run.

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2014.997223

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