IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/11074.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Analyzing the Potential Impact of Indirect Tax Reforms on Poverty with Limited Data: Niger

Author

Listed:
  • Sehili, Saloua
  • Wodon, Quentin

Abstract

Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa are confronted with the need to raise tax revenues in order to be able to provide a range of services to their populations. Yet taxes and other government revenues as a proportion of GDP are lowest in the poorest countries that need to expand their services the most. In addition, because of high level of informality in their economies, very-low-income countries obtain a large share of tax revenues through consumption taxes which tend to be more regressive than taxes on incomes levied in richer countries. Such a situation poses a difficult dilemma. Very-low-income countries are trying to increase their tax revenues to provide better services to their populations in need, but at the same time a substantial part of the burden of increased taxation may fall on the poor. Furthermore, because the poor in very-low-income countries are often extremely poor, even small increases in the price of the goods they consume related to an increase in tax rates on those goods may have important negative implications for the households’ ability to meet their basic needs. This implies that government must be especially careful when raising taxes in order to provide social services. The type of household survey-based analysis that can be conducted to inform governments in this area is illustrated in this paper with a case study on Niger.

Suggested Citation

  • Sehili, Saloua & Wodon, Quentin, 2008. "Analyzing the Potential Impact of Indirect Tax Reforms on Poverty with Limited Data: Niger," MPRA Paper 11074, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:11074
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/11074/1/MPRA_paper_11074.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Francois Bourguignon & Luiz A. Pereira da Silva, 2003. "The Impact of Economic Policies on Poverty and Income Distribution : Evaluation Techniques and Tools," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15090, December.
    2. Yitzhaki, Shlomo & Lewis, Jeffrey D, 1996. "Guidelines on Searching for a Dalton-Improving Tax Reform: An Illustration with Data from Indonesia," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 10(3), pages 541-562, September.
    3. Coady, David P. & Grosh, Margaret & Hoddinott, John, 2002. "Targeting outcomes redux," FCND discussion papers 144, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. Lanjouw, Peter & Ravallion, Martin, 1999. "Benefit Incidence, Public Spending Reforms, and the Timing of Program Capture," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 13(2), pages 257-273, May.
    5. Kathy Hayes & Peter Lambert & Daniel Slottje, "undated". "Evaluating Impact Effects of Tax Reforms," Discussion Papers 93/10, Department of Economics, University of York.
    6. Makdissi, Paul & Wodon, Quentin, 2002. "Consumption dominance curves: testing for the impact of indirect tax reforms on poverty," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 227-235, April.
    7. Ajwad, Mohamed Ihsan & Wodon, Quentin, 2007. "Do local Governments maximize access rates to public services across areas?: A test based on marginal benefit incidence analysis," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 242-260, May.
    8. Yitzhaki, Shlomo & Slemrod, Joel, 1991. "Welfare Dominance: An Application to Commodity Taxation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(3), pages 480-496, June.
    9. Yitzhaki, Shlomo & Thirsk, Wayne, 1990. "Welfare dominance and the design of excise taxation in the Cote d'ivoire," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 1-18, July.
    10. Lambert, Peter J, 1993. "Evaluating Impact Effects of Tax Reforms," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(3), pages 205-242, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jaime Acosta-Margain, 2011. "Tax-benefit incidence of value added tax on food and medicine to fund progressive social expenditure," Working Papers 194, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Paul Makdissi & Quentin Wodon, 2000. "Consumption Dominance Curves: Testing for the Impact of Tax Reforms on Poverty," Cahiers de recherche 00-05, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    2. Jean-Yves Duclos & Paul Makdissi & Quentin Wodon, 2008. "Socially Improving Tax Reforms," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 49(4), pages 1505-1537, November.
    3. Paolo Verme, 2010. "Stochastic Dominance, Poverty and the Treatment Effect Curve," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 30(1), pages 365-373.
    4. Makdissi, Paul & Wodon, Quentin, 2002. "Consumption dominance curves: testing for the impact of indirect tax reforms on poverty," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 227-235, April.
    5. Valentini, Edilio, 2015. "Indirect taxation, public pricing and price cap regulation: A synthesis," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 9, pages 1-39.
    6. Alessandro Santoro, 2007. "Marginal Commodity Tax Reforms: A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 827-848, September.
    7. Duclos, Jean-Yves & Makdissi, Paul & Wodon, Quentin, 2002. "Socially-Efficient Tax Reforms," Cahiers de recherche 0201, Université Laval - Département d'économique.
    8. Jean-Yves Duclos & Paul Makdissi & Abdelkrim Araar, 2009. "Pro-Poor Tax reforms, with an Application to Mexico," Working Papers 0907E, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.
    9. Paul Makdissi & Stéphane Mussard, 2008. "Analyzing the impact of indirect tax reforms on rank-dependent social welfare functions: a positional dominance approach," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 30(3), pages 385-399, April.
    10. Duclos, Jean-Yves & Makdissi, Paul & Wodon, Quentin, 2005. "Poverty-dominant program reforms: the role of targeting and allocation rules," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 53-73, June.
    11. Warr, Peter & Menon, Jayant & Rasphone, Sitthiroth, 2015. "Public Services and the Poor in Laos," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 371-382.
    12. John Cockburn & Hélène Maisonnave & Véronique Robichaud & Luca Tiberti, 2016. "Fiscal Space and Public Spending on Children in Burkina Faso1 [Burkina Faso. Classification-JEL: I32, D58, C50, O55]," International Journal of Microsimulation, International Microsimulation Association, vol. 9(1), pages 5-23.
    13. David Madden, 2015. "The Poverty Effects Of A ‘Fat‐Tax’ In Ireland," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(1), pages 104-121, January.
    14. Jean-Yves Duclos & Paul Makdissi & Abdelkrim Araar, 2014. "Pro-poor indirect tax reforms, with an application to Mexico," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(1), pages 87-118, February.
    15. John Cockburn & Hélène Maisonnave & Véronique Robichaud & Luca Tiberti, 2013. "Fiscal Space and Public Spending on Children in Burkina Faso," Cahiers de recherche 1308, CIRPEE.
    16. Mario Fortin & Andre Leclerc & Jean-Baptiste Nesmy, 2006. "L’impact des opérations transactionnelles sur la croissance de la productivité dans le secteur bancaire," Cahiers de recherche 06-01, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    17. MAKDISSI Paul & MUSSARD Stéphane, 2006. "Between-Group Transfers and Poverty-Reducing Tax Reforms," IRISS Working Paper Series 2006-10, IRISS at CEPS/INSTEAD.
    18. Paolo Liberati, 2001. "The Distributional Effects of Indirect Tax Changes in Italy," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 8(1), pages 27-51, January.
    19. Essama-Nssah, B., 2008. "Assessing the redistributive effect of fiscal policy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4592, The World Bank.
    20. Saikou Amadou Diallo & Paul Makdissi, 2008. "Est-ce que les subsides d'électricité diminuent la pauvreté en Guinée ?," Working Papers 0811E, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Indirect taxes; social services; poverty; Niger;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • D61 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:11074. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.