Parallel session
Taxation, data, and development

Having access to timely and reliable data is a prerequisite for policy-relevant tax analysis.

This panel will discuss recent UNU-WIDER efforts in improving the access to tax data and using these data for research purposes both at the taxpayer level and in a cross-country comparative perspective. At the micro level, the introduction of electronic tax filing and payment methods has generated large taxpayer-level panel data sets that can be utilized in research.

UNU-WIDER has been at the forefront in organizing secure access to such data sets and in generating research on the impacts of taxes on the economic activity in South Africa. Similar efforts are underway elsewhere, for example in Uganda.

Examining issues in international taxation, such as possible transfer mispricing by multinationals, is of particular interest to developing countries, and the panel will discuss the findings and policy implications of such research. Finally, the panel will include a presentation of the macro-level GRD – Government Revenue Dataset that UNU-WIDER maintains and it will highlight key research findings that have been generated with the new, improved, and comparable macro data.

Session videos

Parallel 4.4 | Taxation, data, and development

Milly Nalukwago | Kyle McNabb | Amina Ebrahim | Maria Kurikkala

Video of UNU WIDER 20180913 4 4 Nautica Milly Nalukwago

Video of Think development &ndash; Think WIDER | Parallel 4.4 - Kyle McNabb

Video of UNU WIDER 20180913 4 4 Nautica Amina Ebrahim

Video of Think development &ndash; Think WIDER | Parallel 4.4 - Maria Kurikkala

Collaborators

Jukka Pirttilä | Chair

Jukka Pirttilä is Professor of Economics at the University of Tampere and also works as a Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER. He has previously worked for the Labour Institute for Economic Research (Helsinki, Finland) and the Bank of Finland. Professor Pirttilä’s research focus is on topics related to taxation and social protection in developing countries.

Milly Nalukwago | Presenter | Presentation

Milly Nalukwago is the Assistant Commissioner of Research at the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) and a researcher at the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD). She is the head of the East African Revenue Authorities Technical Committee (EARATC) research sub-committee. Milly is also a member of ICTD’s Centre Advisory Group (CAG).

Kyle McNabb | Presenter | Presentation

Kyle McNabb is a Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER. He has previously worked on research projects for the World Bank and International Centre for Tax and Development. His primary research interests lie in public finance data, domestic resource mobilization, tax-benefit microsimulation, and access to education. He has been involved with the construction, upkeep and management of the Government Revenue Dataset since 2014, firstly at the International Centre for Tax and Development and more recently at UNU-WIDER, where the data is now situated.

Amina Ebrahim | Presenter | Presentation

Amina Ebrahim is a Research Associate at UNU-WIDER focusing on tax administrative data in South Africa. She has previously taught International Economics undergraduate students at Georgetown University School of Foreign Services in Doha, Qatar. Amina is reading for her PhD in Economics at the University of Cape Town. Her research interests include development economics, labour economics and youth labour issues.

Maria Kurikkala | Discussant | Presentation

Maria Kurikkala was appointed the Adviser for Taxation and Development at the Department of Development Policy of the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA) in August 2018. Immediately prior taking up this role, she held the position of Africa delegate at the Permanent representation of Finland to the European Union. She has also served as Diplomatic Adviser to two Ministers of International Development.

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