IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/intorg/v77y2023i1p65-101_4.html

The Fiscal State in Africa: Evidence from a Century of Growth

Author

Listed:
  • Albers, Thilo N.H.
  • Jerven, Morten
  • Suesse, Marvin

Abstract

What is the level of state capacity in developing countries today, and what have been its drivers over the past century? We construct a comprehensive new data set of tax and revenue collection for forty-six African polities from 1900 to 2015. Our data show that polities in Africa have been characterized by strong growth in fiscal capacity on average, but that substantial heterogeneity exists. The empirical analysis reveals that canonical state-building factors such as democratic institutions and interstate warfare have limited power to explain these divergent growth paths. On the other hand, accounting for the relationship between African polities and the international environment—through the availability of external finance and the legacy of colonialism—is key to understanding their differing investments in fiscal capacity. These insights add important nuances to established theories of state building. Not only can the availability of external finance deter investment in fiscal capacity, but it also moderates the efficacy of canonical state-building factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Albers, Thilo N.H. & Jerven, Morten & Suesse, Marvin, 2023. "The Fiscal State in Africa: Evidence from a Century of Growth," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 77(1), pages 65-101, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:intorg:v:77:y:2023:i:1:p:65-101_4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0020818322000285/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Denis Cogneau & Yannick Dupraz & Justine Knebelmann & Sandrine Mesplé-Somps, 2021. "Taxation in Africa from Colonial Times to Present Evidence from former French colonies 1900-2018," Working Papers halshs-03420664, HAL.
    2. Abel Gwaindepi, 2021. "Domestic revenue mobilisation in developing countries: An exploratory analysis of sub‐Saharan Africa and Latin America," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(2), pages 396-421, March.
    3. Dhammika Dharmapala & Marvin Suesse, 2025. "Decolonization, Legitimacy and Fiscal Capacity: Event Study Evidence from Africa," CESifo Working Paper Series 12059, CESifo.
    4. Fetzer, Thiemo & Shaw, Callum & Edenhofer, Jacob, 2024. "Informational Boundaries of the State," CEPR Discussion Papers 18773, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. repec:idq:ictduk:16977 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Ane Karoline Bak & Matilde Jeppesen & Anne Mette Kjær, 2021. "Fiscal states in sub-Saharan Africa: conceptualization and empirical trends," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-182, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Pierre Bachas & Matthew Fisher-Post & Anders Jensen & Gabriel Zucman, 2022. "Globalization and Factor Income Taxation," Working Papers halshs-03693211, HAL.
    8. Abrams M.E. Tagem & Oliver Morrissey, 2021. "What are the drivers of tax capacity in sub-Saharan Africa?," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-161, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • N17 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Africa; Oceania
    • N47 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Africa; Oceania

    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:cup:intorg:v:77:y:2023:i:1:p:65-101_4. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/ino .

    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.