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Oil windfalls and tax inefficiency: evidence from Brazil

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  • Fernando Antonio Slaibe Postali

Abstract

This paper investigates whether Brazilian municipalities are losing efficiency when collecting local taxes in response to oil windfalls. A two-stage procedure was adopted. First, we calculate the efficiency scores for tax collection using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. In the second stage, the efficiency scores are used as the dependent variable in a quantile regression model to assess whether oil rents affect this indicator. The results reveal that the municipalities benefitting from oil revenues (royalties) reduce their efficiency in collecting taxes in response to such grants, which signals that they generate some type of X-inefficiency in municipal public management. Using a Cost-Minimization DEA, it is possible to avoid the problem of mixing technical efficiency with unobservable preferences on public goods. It is also possible to decompose efficiency within three components: technical, allocative and economic.

Suggested Citation

  • Fernando Antonio Slaibe Postali, 2014. "Oil windfalls and tax inefficiency: evidence from Brazil," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2014_02, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    • Handle: RePEc:spa:wpaper:2014wpecon2
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Data envelopment analysis; quantile regression; oil royalties; public sector;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H71 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • Q33 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - Resource Booms (Dutch Disease)

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