Exploring the deep determinants of tax revenues

Abstract

The tax effort literature explains cross-country variation in tax to GDP ratios using various determinants of tax revenues. To date, this literature has viewed this tax ratio primarily as a function of current economic and political circumstances, proximate determinants of tax performance. Borrowing from the development economics literature, this article explores ‘deep determinants’ or long-term variables of tax ratios. I consider how geography, formal institutions, and informal institutions influence tax ratios in a large cross-section of countries. A theory based on ‘institutional efficiency’ is proposed that may partly explain the lower tax ratios in many developing countries.