Domestic Revenue Mobilization in Developing Countries: Collect More Spend Better
Jury
Grégoire Rota-Graziosi, Professor, Université Clermont Auvergne
Emilie Caldeira, Maître de conférences, Université Clermont Auvergne
Shanta Devarajan, Professor, Georges Washington University
Yvon Rocaboy, Professor, Université de Rennes
Mario Mansour, Division Director, International Monetary Fund
Rabah Arezki, Chief Economist, African Development Bank Group
Abstract
This thesis addresses the issue of “collect more spend better” in developing countries with a focus on Sub-Saharan countries. Better mobilization of tax revenue combined with an efficient use of public resources is a reliable solution to the financing needs of poor countries. The thesis contains six chapters and an additional chapter in the appendix.
Chapter 1 focuses on tax policy in developing countries. In this chapter, we demonstrate the existence of interministerial tax competition when the power to tax is fragmented. Chapter 2 explores the relationship between trade liberalization and tax revenue. The results show that liberalization has led to a reduction in tax revenues. Chapter 3 studies the manifestations. It demonstrates the key importance of social media in protest spillover. Chapter 4 estimates the effect of internal conflicts on tax revenue. Our estimates show a negative impact of conflicts on tax revenues. Chapter 5 develops a measure of the quality of public expenditure. It shows the need to improve the quality of public spending in developing countries. In Chapter 6, we identify the determinants of this quality of public expenditure. The additional chapter in the appendix measures the tax effort in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The various chapters illustrate the importance of improving the mobilization of tax revenues and of effectively using these collected resources in the developing country. For this “collect more spend better practice to contribute to the harmonious development of these countries, it must be accompanied by an improvement in State capacity and a strengthening of security. Beyond the main results presented in these chapters, we put an emphasis on reproduction in economic research. We provide illustrations of replication methods in two chapters. Finally, I developed two web applications using R-Shiny allowing the replication of our research as well as their extensions.
Altogether, the chapters of this thesis form a coherent analysis of the social contract in developing countries by studying both questions of tax revenue mobilization and those relating to the efficiency of public spending.
Keywords
Comparative studies of countries, Colonial origin, contagion, cross-sectional models, developing countries, economic development, economic growth, efficiency, expenditure, fiscal policies, government revenue, information and knowledge, instrumental variables, internal conflict, legal origin, macroeconomics, natural resources, noncooperative games, openness, social media, panel data models, performance of government, public spending, street protest, Sub-Saharan Africa taxation, tax policy, tax revenue, tax structure, trade liberalization.
theses.fr/en/s181614
Cerdi-UCA-CNRS
Ferdi