Published on December 12, 2025 – Updated on December 12, 2025
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PhD Defence. Essays on tax morale in developing countries.


Koku Eli Soglo
CERDI, Université Clermont Auvergne
Université de Lomé

Examiners

Mary-Françoise Renard, Professor, Université Clermont Auvergne
Mawussé Komlagan Nézan Okey, Associate Professor, Université de Lomé, Togo
Awa Traore, Professor, Université cheikh Anta Diop, Sénégal
Antonio Savoia, Professor, University of Manchester, Royaume-Uni
Zié Ballo, Professor, Université Félix Houphouët Boigny, Côte d’Ivoire
Jean-François Brun, Associate Professor, Université Clermont Auvergne, CERDI

Abstract

In recent years, developing countries (DCs) have faced the challenge of mobilizing additional domestic resources, particularly fiscal resources, to finance their development projects on a sustainable basis. Faced with exploding debt, ever-growing needs (education, health, infrastructure, poverty), and volatile Official Development Assistance (ODA), these countries are obliged to seek additional resources to increase their budgetary space. In addition to these national requirements, there are international ones such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Significant efforts have therefore been made in the field of international taxation and in building the capacity of tax administrations to collect taxes more effectively and efficiently. However, there is still a long way to go before a lasting culture of fiscal civic-mindedness takes hold.

Tax revenues collected by OECD member countries average 35% of GDP, compared with an average of 15% of GDP for two-thirds of DCs (OECD, 2019). In contrast to the efforts listed above, improving tax compliance has been a relatively neglected issue, even though it is central to a tax system for substantial revenue mobilization. With this in mind, the present research aims to provide some answers to the following questions: What are the socio-economic, political, and institutional determinants of tax compliance in developing countries? What is its actual impact on tax revenues? This thesis is divided into two parts. The first chapter identifies the socio-economic, political, and institutional determinants of individual tax compliance in the context of SSA countries; the second chapter analyzes the factors influencing corporate tax compliance in Togo; and the last chapter deals with the digitization of taxes, the modernization of tax administration and tax compliance in developing countries. Finally, in the second part, we demonstrate that improving tax compliance remains the ultimate alternative for minimizing tax revenue losses in developing countries.

Keywords

Tax Evasion, Tax Morale, Tax Compliance, Developing Countries, Tax Gap, Tax Consent

https://theses.fr/s363590