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What is the Domestic Revenue Mobilization programme?
The Domestic Revenue Mobilization (DRM) programme, implemented by UNU-WIDER and funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), aims to address the challenges of raising domestic revenue in the Global South in order to finance public spending in a sustainable manner. The programme focuses on strengthening domestic capacities for revenue collection, which is critical for financing public goods and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those related to poverty reduction, inequality, and sustainable economic growth. Through its partnerships, the DRM programme contributes to building effective states, reducing inequalities, and supporting sustainable development in low- and middle-income countries.
Phase 2 (2024–27)
Building on the successes of the first phase (2020–23), the second phase of the DRM programme (1 January 2024 – 31 December 2027) seeks to further increase its visibility within policy and research communities. Phase 2 will address the challenges of raising domestic revenue to finance public spending in a sustainable manner, ultimately aiming to combat poverty and inequality in Global South countries. The programme is structured around three interconnected thematic areas: the empirics of taxation and social protection, environmental taxation and just energy transition, and tax and governance work. These themes align closely with UNU-WIDER's 2024–27 work programme, focusing on addressing key global challenges such as inequality, conflict, and fiscal space, as well as the cross-cutting themes of data, gender, and climate.
Current Projects
Tax and governance work
- Tax and conflict: This project explores the role of taxation in conflict-affected states, focusing on how different tax systems and revenue structures influence statebuilding processes and governance in these contexts. As part of our research focus on conflict, the project aims to understand the sustainability of state-building efforts through the lens of taxation
- The political economy of taxation: This research examines the determinants of tax policy in low- and middle-income countries, particularly how political incentives shape the structure and effectiveness of tax systems. The project also includes the Government Revenue Dataset (GRD), a comprehensive resource for analyzing tax trends and government revenue data
- Cross-border taxation: This project investigates the tax implications of cross-border financial flows, including the growing role of crypto-assets. The research aims to understand how these flows impact tax enforcement, particularly in Global South countries
Environmental taxation and just energy transition
- Carbon taxation and fuel subsidies: This project explores the role of environmental taxes in driving sustainable development, including the phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies. The purpose of the research is to understand the impacts of environmental taxes on households, firms, and the environment in Global South countries, with a focus on the cross-cutting theme of climate change
- Carbon taxation and just transition: This research examines structural transformations in Global South countries. Carbon tax policies are critical policy tools for steering economies toward zero-carbon pathways. The research examines how these measures can be designed to promote environmental sustainability and support a just energy transition, while also considering social equity
The empirics of tax and social protection
- SOUTHMOD – simulating tax and benefit policies for development (phase 3): SOUTHMOD models simulate tax and benefit policies to analyze their impact on poverty, inequality, and government revenue. In phase 3, the project will continue to refine these models, incorporating new data and producing policy-relevant research and evidence in collaboration with local partners
- Tax research for development (phase 3): This project builds on previous research to explore new aspects of taxation in developing countries. The focus is on generating high-quality, policy-relevant research that can inform tax policy and help improve tax systems in the Global South
The Domestic Revenue Mobilization programme is a vital initiative aimed at enhancing the capacity of countries in the Global South to mobilize domestic revenue effectively. By focusing on key thematic areas—tax and governance, environmental taxation and just energy transition, and the empirics of taxation and social protection—the programme contributes to more equitable and sustainable development outcomes. Through partnerships, research, and capacity development, the DRM programme seeks to create lasting impact and support countries in achieving their development goals.
PROJECTS
The political economy of taxation
GRD - Government Revenue Dataset
Building trust and institutions for peace
Team
Focal point | Kunal Sen
Programme and Partnerships | Lumi Young
Communications | Annett Victorero, Marie-France Boucher
IN PARTNERSHIP
Financial support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad)
140 articles, publications, projects, experts...
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Working Paper
Concealed costs: illicit economies and the erosion of the local tax base in ColombiaTax revenues are fundamental to state-building and development, particularly in the aftermath of conflict. Through the lens of the recent post-conflict experience of Colombia, this paper explores the challenges of increasing tax revenues amid...
Journal Article
Differential bunching impacts across the income distribution: evidence from tax administrative dataWe investigate the behavioural responses of individual taxpayers to changes in marginal personal income tax rates applying empirical bunching methodology to tax administrative data from Zambia over the period from 2014 to 2021. We find evidence for...
Journal Article
The effects of a risk-based approach to tax examinations: evidence from a tax pilot programme in TanzaniaTechnical assistance and increased use of ICT in tax administrations hold promise for greater revenue collection. Yet, the evidence on how these activities work in the real-world circumstances of developing countries is scant. The paper attempts to...
Working Paper
Conflict, taxation, and developmentThe impact of conflict on taxation and development has long been debated. Most studies suggest that conflict will have a depressive effect on state tax collection, negatively impacting economic growth and development. After reviewing the existing...
Working Paper
Quid pro quo: how the wartime economy shapes the violent contestation of the state after warWhy do some conflict-affected areas remain an arena of violent contestation of the state, while others transition to peace? I suggest that economic networks developed during intrastate conflict—i.e. wartime economies—give rise to continued pockets of...
Blog
Just transitions and the importance of social protection reforms for ambitious climate actionAs greenhouse gases once again climb to record levels, countries are under pressure to make the move to a low-carbon economy. Policies that move in...
Journal Article
The effects of taxation on income inequality in sub-Saharan AfricaARTICLE IS ON EARLY VIEW | This study investigates the effects of taxation on income inequality in an unbalanced panel of 45 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa over the period 1980–2018. We use two-stage least squares and the instrumental variables...
Report
SOUTHMOD country report Zanzibar - ZANMOD v1.1This report documents ZANMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Zanzibar. This work was carried out by staff at Zanzibar University, the Second Vice President’s Office in Zanzibar, the University of Dar es Salaam, and the University of Dodoma, in...
Report
SOUTHMOD country report Peru - PERUMOD v2.5This report documents PERUMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Peru. This work was carried out by UNU-WIDER in collaboration with the Universidad del Pacífico (UP) in Peru. The results presented in this report are derived using PERUMOD version 2.5...
Report
SOUTHMOD country report Ecuador - ECUAMOD v4.3This report documents ECUAMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Ecuador. This work was carried out by the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in collaboration with the Facultad...
Report
SOUTHMOD country report Colombia - COLMOD v2.4This report documents COLMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Colombia. This work was carried out by the Observatorio de Desarrollo y Política Social (ODEPS) at Facultad de Economía, Universidad Externado de Colombia. The results presented in this...
Report
SOUTHMOD country report Bolivia - BOLMOD v2.1This report documents BOLMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Bolivia. This work was carried out independently by Cristina Arancibia and David Macas. The results presented in this report are derived using BOLMOD version 2.1, which is part of the...
Report
SOUTHMOD country report Zambia - MicroZAMOD v2.16This report documents MicroZAMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Zambia. This work was carried out by Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis & Research (ZIPAR) in collaboration with the project partners. The results presented in this report are...
Report
SOUTHMOD country report Mozambique - MOZMOD v3.0This report documents MOZMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Mozambique. This work was carried out by the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Mozambique in collaboration with the project partners. The results presented in this report are derived...
Report
SOUTHMOD country report Tanzania - TAZMOD v2.9This report documents TAZMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Tanzania Mainland. This work was carried out by University of Dar es Salaam in collaboration with the project partners. The results presented in this report are derived using TAZMOD...
Report
SOUTHMOD country report Uganda - UGAMOD v2.1This report documents UGAMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Uganda. This work was carried out by Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) and Makerere University in collaboration with the project partners. The results presented in this report are derived...
Report
SOUTHMOD country report Viet Nam - VNMOD v3.4This report documents VNMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Viet Nam. This work has been carried out by the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) in collaboration with UNU-WIDER and SASPRI. The results presented in this report are...
Report
SOUTHMOD country report Ghana - GHAMOD v2.7This report documents GHAMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Ghana. This work was carried out by the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) at the University of Ghana in collaboration with the project partners. The results...
Report
SOUTHMOD country report Ethiopia - ETMOD v3.1This report documents ETMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Ethiopia. The Ethiopian national team currently includes Adnan A. Shahir, Abas Mohammed Ali (Ministry of Planning and Development, Ethiopia), and Francesco Figari (University of Eastern...
Report
SOUTHMOD country report Rwanda - RWAMOD v1.1This report documents RWAMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Rwanda. This work was carried out by UNU-WIDER, SASPRI, and the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA). The results presented in this report are derived using RWAMOD version 1.1, which is part of...
Blog
Uganda’s tax system isn’t bringing in enough revenue, but is targeting small business the answer?
Uganda, with a fiscal deficit of 5.6% in 2023, has increasingly turned to local resources to make up for its revenue shortfall since the World Bank...
Working Paper
Microsimulation of tax-benefit systems in the Global South: a comparative assessmentThis paper analyses the effectiveness of tax-benefit systems in reducing poverty and inequality across 13 countries in the Global South. Using national survey data and tax-benefit microsimulation models from the SOUTHMOD project, we provide a cross...
Working Paper
Tax revenue data in Africa: the Government Revenue Dataset and African Tax Outlook in comparisonThis paper compares two important sources of tax revenue statistics for African countries, namely the Africa Tax Administration Forum’s African Tax Outlook and the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research's...
Blog
Reforming taxation in Kenya to reduce debt distress
Improving tax systems is important for multiple reasons. For Kenya, finding ways to mobilize domestic revenue streams is critical to cutting the...
Journal Article
The dynamic effects of aid and taxes on government spendingThis article examines the impact of foreign aid and taxes on government spending for 67 developing countries during 1980–2013 using dynamic heterogeneous (panel) time-series techniques. We find that spending, aid and tax ratios comprise an...
Blog
Four things to consider to improve public revenues in the Global South: New findings from the Government Revenue DatasetAcross the Global South, governments continue efforts to increase domestic revenues and capacity for public spending. As concerns over debt distress...
Working Paper
Double taxation treaties and resource revenue mobilization in developing countriesDouble taxation treaties, by assigning taxing rights to rival countries and thereby eradicating double taxation, aim to facilitate cross-border trade and investment. The eradication of double taxation is achieved through reductions in withholding tax...
Working Paper
Tax and sustainable development in sub-Saharan AfricaThis paper establishes how accountability quality might mediate the effect of tax revenue on sustainable development in 41 sub-Saharan African countries for the period 1990–2019. The empirical evidence is based on three empirical strategies...
Working Paper
Climate vulnerability and government resource mobilization in developing countriesThere is substantial empirical literature on the impact of climate vulnerability on economic outcomes in developing countries. However, this literature is still weak on the impact of climate vulnerability on tax revenue mobilization. To enrich the...
Working Paper
The effects of taxation on income inequality in sub-Saharan AfricaThis paper investigates the effects of taxation on income inequality in an unbalanced panel of 45 countries in sub-Saharan Africa over the period 1980–2018. We use instrumental-variable two-stage least squares and instrumental-variable quantile...
Working Paper
Domestic revenue mobilization and informalityEffective domestic revenue mobilization has gained renewed urgency, especially in the light of the need to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. In taxation debates, the ‘informal sectors’ have hitherto been assumed to be a part of the problem and...
Blog
Inequality, fiscal space, and crisis response — A matter of priority, affordability, or both?
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments financed more than 5000 fiscal support policies worldwide in 2020–21. The pandemic response is an...
Working Paper
Aid, taxes, and government spendingA substantial amount of aid to developing countries is given to the government, or goes through the budget, meaning it should have an impact on government fiscal behaviour (particularly on government spending). The few existing empirical studies on...
Working Paper
A model to explain the impact of government revenue on the quality of governance and the SDGsThis paper empirically investigates the link between the level of government revenue per capita and six indicators of quality of governance in an unbalanced panel data set consisting of all countries in the world (217) using data from 1980 to 2020...
Working Paper
Does aid fragmentation affect tax revenue dynamics in developing countries?There exists a burgeoning empirical literature on the impact of aid fragmentation on development outcomes in aid-receiving countries, with it being widely recognized that aid fragmentation is deleterious. This paper adds to the existing literature by...
Working Paper
Fiscal consequences of corporate tax avoidanceMultinational corporations shift a large share of their foreign profits to tax havens and, due to this corporate tax avoidance, governments worldwide lose a portion of their tax revenues. In this paper we study the consequences of multinational tax...
Blog
What can the GRD do for policymakers?
A few months ago, I was asked to deliver a lecture at the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies on the UNU-WIDER Government Revenue...
Working Paper
Social protection expansions during crisis and fiscal spaceThis study provides a first attempt to contribute a large-scale assessment of whether crisis response as observed during the COVID-19 pandemic can serve as a feasible blueprint for creating durable solutions across countries. Adopting a lens on...
Blog
Data for development
The first of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to end poverty in all its forms, everywhere. The monumental task — a long-time dream of...
Blog
The tortoise defeats the hare: Does moderate outlast rapid growth in domestic revenue?The past four decades have seen marked improvements in the collection of domestic revenue (tax and non-tax revenues) in many countries of the Global...
Working Paper
The dynamics of domestic revenue mobilization across four decadesWe utilize the recently updated UNU-WIDER Government Revenue Dataset, which covers key indicators on tax and non-tax revenues for 196 countries since the 1980s, to study the dynamics of government revenue tax collection across selected periods from...
Technical Note
Government Revenue Dataset (2021): country notesThis technical note is the third in a series based on the UNU-WIDER Government Revenue Dataset (GRD). The preceding notes have described in detail the variables contained within the GRD and the source selection procedures. In this technical note, we...
Working Paper
Tax effort revisited: new estimates from the Government Revenue DatasetAttention on domestic resource mobilization—particularly in developing countries—has increased significantly in recent years. This stems from, among other things, recognition in the Sustainable Development Goals that further domestic funding is...
Blog
Social protection at a crossroad
How can we ensure a resilient and inclusive recovery from COVID-19? How can we hold on to the target of eradicating poverty and hunger by 2030, with...
Technical Note
Government Revenue Dataset (2021): variable descriptionThis technical note is part of a series of technical notes describing the construction of the Government Revenue Dataset (GRD). This document specifically focuses on the composition of variables in the GRD (version August 2021) and across the...
Technical Note
Government Revenue Dataset (2021): source selectionThis technical note is part of a series of technical notes describing the construction of the Government Revenue Dataset (GRD). We provide an overview of the underlying sources in the GRD and the criteria used in order to select data from them. In...
Blog
How global tax dodging costs lives: New research shows a direct link to increased death ratesTax abuse is an expensive business. According to a recent report by the Tax Justice Network, avoiding or evading tax deprives governments across the...
Blog
Data for better tax policy analysis: Introducing the latest version of the Government Revenue Dataset
Thanks to the updated version of the Government Revenue Dataset (GRD) we are now able to gain a clear picture of tax and other revenue trends in over...
Blog
Revenue data like you’ve never seen it before: Introducing the GRD Explorer
Let’s face it, data is important. It sits at the core of almost everything that we in the development economics research community do. However, the...
Working Paper
Toward closer cohesion of international tax statisticsThe Government Revenue Dataset (GRD) was launched in September 2014 and, in the few years since, has gone on to be recognized as the go-to source for researchers and policy makers seeking cross-country data on government revenues and taxes. However...
Blog
Domestic revenue mobilization and the role of data
Government revenues are central to funding public expenditures in all countries. Increasingly, developing countries must look to raise domestic...
Blog
Updated Government Revenue Dataset provides new insights into developing country tax collection trends
The increasing focus on domestic resource mobilization in developing countries means that, for researchers and policy makers, access to accurate and...
Blog
Tax, development and the SDGs: How we are supporting the data revolution
At the core of efforts to meet the Sustainable Development Goals lies a commitment to enhance domestic revenue mobilization. Strengthening capacity to...
Working Paper
Party system institutionalization and reliance on personal income taxThis paper explores the effect of party system institutionalization on the reliance of tax systems on the personal income tax. As a first step, the paper re-examines the relationship between party system institutionalization and taxation patterns...
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Context
Main subject
Theme: 2024-27