Glimpses of fiscal states in sub-Saharan Africa

Mick Moore

No wp-2021-151, WIDER Working Paper Series from World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER)

Abstract: There is a widespread perception that taxing in sub-Saharan Africa has been and remains fraught with problems or government failure. This is not generally true. For more than a century, colonial administrations and independent states have steadily developed the capacity to routinely collect more substantial revenues than one might expect in a low-income region. The two main historical dimensions of this collection capacity were (a) powerful, centralized bureaucracies focused on achieving revenue collection targets and (b) large, taxable international trade sectors.

Keywords: Tax; Revenue; Sub-Saharan Africa; Tax reform; Tax administration; Customs; Fiscal states (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-dev
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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