Mobilizing Revenue in Sub-Saharan Africa: Empirical Norms and Key Determinants
IMF Working Papers, May 1, 2012
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- Mobilizing Revenue in Sub-Saharan Africa: Empirical Norms and Key Determinants
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Bibliographic details
- Authors: Paulo Drummond, Wendell Daal, Nandini Srivastava, Luiz E Oliveira
- Published: May 1, 2012
- Series: IMF Working Papers
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781475503296.001
Overview and purpose
- Mobilizing more revenue is a priority for sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries to finance their development agendas and address fiscal imbalances.
- The paper reviews the experience of low-income SSA countries in mobilizing revenue in recent decades with two broad aims:
- Identify empirical norms of how much and how fast countries have been able to mobilize more revenue.
- Identify empirical determinants (panel estimates) of revenue mobilization.
Key empirical findings
- Frequency distribution of changes in revenue ratios for SSA low-income countries (LICs) peaks at:
- about ½-2 percentage points of GDP in the short-to-medium term, and
- about 2-3½ percentage points of GDP over the longer term.
- Almost all SSA-LICs managed to increase revenue ratios by more than 2 percentage points of GDP in the short-to-medium term at least once in the last two decades.
- The sustainability of large increases in revenue ratios can be an issue, in particular for fragile countries.
Determinants of tax revenue (panel estimates)
- Structural factors identified as important determinants of tax revenue include:
- per capita GDP
- share of agriculture in GDP
- inflation
- degree of openness
- rents received from natural resources
Subjects and keywords (as listed)
- Subjects: Agricultural sector, Balance of payments, Current account balance, Economic sectors, Environment, Fiscal policy, Natural resources, Revenue administration, Revenue mobilization
- Keywords: Agricultural sector, Current account balance, econometric panel estimation, fiscal policy, fiscal revenue, fragile country, frequency distribution, mobilizing revenue, Natural resources, revenue gain, Revenue mobilization, revenue performance, revenue ratio, Sub-Saharan Africa, tax revenue, WP
Publication metadata (selected)
- Pages: 43
- Volume: 2012
- Issue: 108
- Series: Working Paper No. 2012/108
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781475503296.001
- ISBN: 9781475503296
- ISSN: 1018-5941
IMF Working Paper — "Mobilizing Revenue in Sub-Saharan Africa: Empirical Norms and Key Determinants", By Paulo Drummond, Wendell Daal, Nandini Srivastava, Luiz E Oliveira, May 1, 2012.
Content in this bundle
- Appendix 1: Case Study