Does e-government improve government capacity ? evidence from tax administration and public procurement

Anna Kochanova, Zahid Hasnain and Bradley Robert Larson

No 7657, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: Using a cross-country data set on e-government systems, this paper analyzes whether e-filing of taxes and e-procurement adoption improves the capacity of governments to raise and spend resources through the lowering of tax compliance costs, improvement of public procurement competitiveness, and reduction of corruption. The paper finds that information and communications technology can help improve government capacity, but the impact of e-government varies by type of government activity and is stronger in more developed countries. Implementation of e-filing systems reduces tax compliance costs as measured by the number of tax payments, time required to prepare and pay taxes, likelihood and frequency of firms being visited by a tax official, perception of tax administration as an obstacle, and incidence of bribery. The effects of e-procurement are weaker, with the number of firms securing or attempting to secure a government contract increasing with e-procurement implementation only in countries with higher levels of development and better quality institutions. The paper finds no systematic relationship between e-procurement and bureaucratic corruption.

Keywords: Youth and Governance; Public Finance Decentralization and Poverty Reduction; Public Sector Administrative&Civil Service Reform; Democratic Government; National Governance; De Facto Governments; Government Policies; Public Sector Economics; Public Sector Administrative and Civil Service Reform (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-04-28
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-iue, nep-pay and nep-pbe
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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