Taxation in Africa from Colonial Times to Present Evidence from former French colonies 1900-2018
Cogneau, Denis; Dupraz, Yannick; Knebelmann, Justine; Mesplé-Somps, Sandrine (2021), Taxation in Africa from Colonial Times to Present Evidence from former French colonies 1900-2018. https://basepub.dauphine.psl.eu/handle/123456789/22637
Type
Document de travail / Working paperDate
2021Publisher
Paris School of Economics
Series title
PSE Working PapersSeries number
2021 – 62Published in
Paris
Pages
67
Metadata
Show full item recordAuthor(s)
Cogneau, DenisDéveloppement, institutions et analyses de long terme [DIAL]
Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques [PJSE]
Dupraz, Yannick
University Dublin [UCD]
Knebelmann, Justine
Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques [PJSE]
Mesplé-Somps, Sandrine
Développement, institutions et analyses de long terme [DIAL]
Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine [LEDa]
Abstract (EN)
This paper sheds light on the fiscal trajectories of 18 former French colonies in Africa from colonial times to the present. Building upon own previous work about colonial public finance (Cogneau et al., 2021), we compile a novel dataset by combining previously available data with recently digitized data from historical archives, to produce continuous and comparable public revenue data series from 1900 to 2018. This allows us to study the evolution of the level and composition of fiscal revenues in the post-colonial decades, with a special focus on the critical juncture of independence. We find that very few countries achieved significant progress infiscal capacity between the end of the colonial period and today, if we set aside income drawn from mineral resources. This is not explained by a lasting collapse of fiscal capacity at the time of independence. From 1960 to today, the reliance on mineral resource revenues increased on average and dependence on international commodity prices persisted, with few exceptions. The relative contribution of trade taxes declined after the structural adjustments, and lost trade revenues were not compensated by a sufficient increase in domestic taxes. However, for the most recent period, we do note an improvement in the capacity to collect taxes on the domestic economy.Subjects / Keywords
Tax revenue; Colonialism; History of taxation; Francophone AfricaRelated items
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Cogneau, Denis; Dupraz, Yannick; Mesplé-Somps, Sandrine (2018-06) Document de travail / Working paper
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Cogneau, Denis; Dupraz, Y.; Mesplé-Somps, Sandrine (2021) Article accepté pour publication ou publié
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