IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2023-66.html

Taxpayer response to greater progressivity: Evidence from personal income tax reform in Uganda

Author

Listed:
  • Maria Jouste
  • Tina Kaidu Barugahara
  • Joseph Okello Ayo
  • Jukka Pirttilä
  • Pia Rattenhuber

Abstract

We evaluate a major personal income tax reform in Uganda that came into effect in 2012-13, contributing to the scarce literature on the effects of personal income tax reform on employees' income in a low-income country in Africa. The reform increased the tax-free lower threshold, increased tax rates for higher incomes, and introduced an additional highest tax band for top 1% of income earners. Using the universe of pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) administrative data from the Uganda Tax Authority, we analyse the impact of the reform on reported labour incomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Maria Jouste & Tina Kaidu Barugahara & Joseph Okello Ayo & Jukka Pirttilä & Pia Rattenhuber, 2023. "Taxpayer response to greater progressivity: Evidence from personal income tax reform in Uganda," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2023-66, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2023-66
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2023-66-taxpayer-response-greater-progressivity-personal-income-tax-reform-Uganda_0.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2013. "Optimal Taxation of Labor Income," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-00944881, HAL.
    2. Aliisa Koivisto & Nicholas Musoke & Dorothy Nakyambadde & Caroline Schimanski, 2021. "The case of taxing multinational corporations in Uganda: Do multinational corporations face lower effective tax rates and is there evidence for profit shifting?," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-51, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Pierre Bachas & Anders Jensen & Lucie Gadenne, 2024. "Tax Equity in Low- and Middle-Income Countries," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 38(1), pages 55-80, Winter.
    4. Raj Chetty, 2009. "Sufficient Statistics for Welfare Analysis: A Bridge Between Structural and Reduced-Form Methods," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 451-488, May.
    5. Miguel Almunia & Jonas Hjort & Justine Knebelmann & Lin Tian, 2024. "Strategic or Confused Firms? Evidence from “Missing” Transactions in Uganda," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(1), pages 256-265, January.
    6. Carina Neisser, 2021. "The Elasticity of Taxable Income: A Meta-Regression Analysis [The top 1% in international and historical perspective]," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(640), pages 3365-3391.
    7. Emmanuel Saez & Joel Slemrod & Seth H. Giertz, 2012. "The Elasticity of Taxable Income with Respect to Marginal Tax Rates: A Critical Review," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(1), pages 3-50, March.
    8. Dina Pomeranz & José Vila-Belda, 2019. "Taking State-Capacity Research to the Field: Insights from Collaborations with Tax Authorities," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 11(1), pages 755-781, August.
    9. Marcelo Bergolo & Gabriel Burdin & Mauricio De Rosa & Matias Giaccobasso & Martin Leites, 2021. "Digging Into the Channels of Bunching: Evidence from the Uruguayan Income Tax," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(639), pages 2726-2762.
    10. Emmanuel Saez, 2001. "Using Elasticities to Derive Optimal Income Tax Rates," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 68(1), pages 205-229.
    11. Jakobsen, Katrine Marie & Søgaard, Jakob Egholt, 2022. "Identifying behavioral responses to tax reforms: New insights and a new approach," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    12. Gruber, Jon & Saez, Emmanuel, 2002. "The elasticity of taxable income: evidence and implications," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 1-32, April.
    13. Maria Jouste & Tina Kaidu Barugahara & Joseph Ayo Okello & Jukka Pirttilä & Pia Rattenhuber, 2025. "Taxpayer response to greater progressivity: evidence from personal income tax reform in Uganda," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 32(4), pages 1177-1212, August.
    14. Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2012. "Optimal Labor Income Taxation," NBER Working Papers 18521, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Bohne, Albrecht & Nimczik, Jan Sebastian, 2018. "Information Frictions and Learning Dynamics: Evidence from Tax Avoidance in Ecuador," IZA Discussion Papers 11536, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. J. A. Mirrlees, 1971. "An Exploration in the Theory of Optimum Income Taxation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 38(2), pages 175-208.
    17. Henrik J. Kleven & Mazhar Waseem, 2013. "Using Notches to Uncover Optimization Frictions and Structural Elasticities: Theory and Evidence from Pakistan," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(2), pages 669-723.
    18. Johannes Hermanus Kemp, 2019. "The Elasticity of Taxable Income: The Case of South Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 87(4), pages 417-449, December.
    19. Kyle McNabb & Hazel Granger, 2023. "The taxation of employment income in African countries: Findings from a new dataset," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(7), pages 1595-1618, October.
    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. Maria Jouste & Tina Kaidu Barugahara & Joseph Ayo Okello & Jukka Pirttilä & Pia Rattenhuber, 2025. "Taxpayer response to greater progressivity: evidence from personal income tax reform in Uganda," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 32(4), pages 1177-1212, August.

    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. Carina Neisser, 2021. "The Elasticity of Taxable Income: A Meta-Regression Analysis [The top 1% in international and historical perspective]," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(640), pages 3365-3391.
    2. Badel, Alejandro & Huggett, Mark, 2017. "The sufficient statistic approach: Predicting the top of the Laffer curve," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 1-12.
    3. Ben Lockwood, 2020. "Malas notches," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(4), pages 779-804, August.
    4. Michaël Sicsic, 2023. "L’élasticité de l’offre de travail et des revenus dans la littérature. Une analyse comparative des méthodes et des résultats sur données microéconomiques," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 0(4), pages 5-40.
    5. Laurence Jacquet & Etienne Lehmann, 2021. "Optimal Income Taxation with Composition Effects," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(2), pages 1299-1341.
    6. Laurence Jacquet & Etienne Lehmann, 2015. "Optimal Income Taxation when Skills and Behavioral Elasticities are Heterogeneous," CESifo Working Paper Series 5265, CESifo.
    7. Hiroshi Gunji & Kazuki Hiraga & Kenji Miyazaki, 2024. "Tax Deduction Matters: Elasticities of the Laffer Curve, Taxable Income, and Tax Revenue," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 30(1), pages 1-19, February.
    8. Støstad, Morten Nyborg & Cowell, Frank, 2024. "Inequality as an externality: Consequences for tax design," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    9. Jacquet, Laurence & Lehmann, Etienne & Van der Linden, Bruno, 2013. "Optimal redistributive taxation with both extensive and intensive responses," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 148(5), pages 1770-1805.
    10. Findeisen, Sebastian & Sachs, Dominik, 2015. "Designing efficient college and tax policies," Working Papers 15-09, University of Mannheim, Department of Economics.
    11. Simeon Schächtele, 2020. "Tax Responses at Low Taxable Incomes: Evidence from Germany," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(2), pages 411-439, June.
    12. Albert Jan Hummel, 2021. "Unemployment and tax design," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 21-061/VI, Tinbergen Institute.
    13. Emmanuel Saez & Joel Slemrod & Seth H. Giertz, 2012. "The Elasticity of Taxable Income with Respect to Marginal Tax Rates: A Critical Review," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(1), pages 3-50, March.
    14. Graber, Michael & Mogstad, Magne & Torsvik, Gaute & Vestad, Ola, 2022. "Behavioural responses to income taxation in Norway," Memorandum 4/2022, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    15. Michaël Sicsic, 2022. "Does labour income react more to income tax or means‐tested benefits reforms?," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(3), pages 291-319, September.
    16. Etienne Lehmann & Laurent Simula & Alain Trannoy, 2014. "Tax me if you can! Optimal Nonlinear Income Tax Between Competing Governments," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(4), pages 1995-2030.
    17. Gian Maria Tomat, 2018. "The elasticity of personal income: evidence from survey data," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 35(2), pages 433-462, August.
    18. Jacob Lundberg, 2017. "The Laffer curve for high incomes," LIS Working papers 711, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    19. Zubrickas, Robertas, 2023. "The relative income effect and labor supply," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 176-184.
    20. Johannes Hermle & Andreas Peichl, 2018. "Jointly Optimal Taxes for Different Types of Income," CESifo Working Paper Series 7248, CESifo.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C31 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models; Quantile Regressions; Social Interaction Models
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • O23 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Fiscal and Monetary Policy in Development

    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:unu:wpaper:wp-2023-66. 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: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.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.