Political Institutions, State Building, and Tax Capacity

Download or read book Political Institutions, State Building, and Tax Capacity written by Vitor Gaspar and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2016-12-02 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An empirical finding by Gaspar, Jaramillo and Wingender (2016) shows that once countries cross a tax-to-GDP threshold of around 123⁄4 percent, real GDP per capita increases sharply and in a sustained manner over the following decade. In this paper, we attempt via four case studies—Spain, China, Colombia, and Nigeria—to illustrate that the improvements in tax capacity have been part of a deeper process of state capacity building. We discuss the political conditions that supported tax capacity building, highlighting three important political ingredients: constitutive institutions, inclusive politics and credible leadership.