IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/povpop/v12y2020i1p73-83.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Citizens' Trust in Government and Their Greater Willingness to Pay Taxes in Tanzania: A Case Study of Mtwara, Lindi, and Dar es Salaam Regions

Author

Listed:
  • Mwoya Byaro
  • Abel Kinyondo

Abstract

This article examines the citizens' trust in government and their willingness to pay taxes to improve public goods/services in Tanzania. Descriptive statistics show that 79.4 percent of the citizens trust the government. The findings show that a citizen's trust in government varies positively and significantly with the quality of public goods/services. An increase of one unit of public service delivery is associated with an increase in a citizen's trust in the government. A χ2 test shows a significant association between a citizen's trust in the government and willingness to pay more taxes for improved public services. About 91.3 percent of citizens were willing to pay more taxes if public services were improved. A higher level of citizens' trust in government and good quality of public service delivery encourage greater willingness to pay taxes in order to improve public services. Therefore, targeting public policies toward dissatisfied citizens is critical to making a stronger impact on trust in government. 本文检验了坦桑尼亚公民对政府的信任及其在通过缴税提高公共物品/服务方面的支付意愿。描述性统计显示, 79.4%的公民信任政府。研究发现显示, 公民对政府的信任会随公共物品/服务的质量而发生积极且显著的变化。每增加一个单位的公共服务交付, 都与公民对政府的信任上升有关。卡方检验显示, 公民对政府的信任与通过多缴税提高公共服务的支付意愿之间存在显著联系。如果公共服务得以提高, 则有近91.3%的公民愿意多缴税。公民对政府的信任程度的提升, 加之公共服务交付的良好质量, 会鼓励更高程度的缴税意愿, 用于改善公共服务。因此, 将不满意政府的公民作为公共政策的目标导向尤为重要, 以期对信任政府一事产生更强劲的影响。 Este documento examina la confianza de los ciudadanos en el gobierno y su disposición a pagar impuestos para mejorar los bienes/servicios públicos en Tanzania. Las estadísticas descriptivas muestran que el 79,4% de la confianza de los ciudadanos en el gobierno. Los resultados muestran que la confianza de los ciudadanos en el gobierno varía de manera positiva y significativa con la calidad de los bienes/servicios públicos. Un aumento de una unidad de prestación de servicios públicos se asocia con un aumento de la confianza de los ciudadanos en el gobierno. La prueba de Chi cuadrado muestra una asociación significativa entre la confianza de los ciudadanos en el gobierno y la disposición a pagar más impuestos por servicios públicos mejorados. Alrededor del 91.3% de los ciudadanos estaban dispuestos a pagar más impuestos si se mejoran los servicios públicos. El mayor nivel de confianza de los ciudadanos en el gobierno y la buena calidad de la prestación de servicios públicos fomenta una mayor disposición a pagar impuestos para mejorar los servicios públicos. Por lo tanto, orientar las políticas públicas hacia ciudadanos insatisfechos es fundamental para lograr un mayor impacto en la confianza en el gobierno.

Suggested Citation

  • Mwoya Byaro & Abel Kinyondo, 2020. "Citizens' Trust in Government and Their Greater Willingness to Pay Taxes in Tanzania: A Case Study of Mtwara, Lindi, and Dar es Salaam Regions," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(1), pages 73-83, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:povpop:v:12:y:2020:i:1:p:73-83
    DOI: 10.1002/pop4.271
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/pop4.271
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/pop4.271?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dimitrios Varvarigos & Guangyi Xin, 2015. "Social Interactions, the Evolution of Trust, and Economic Growth," Discussion Papers in Economics 15/05, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    2. Nunkoo, Robin, 2015. "Tourism development and trust in local government," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 623-634.
    3. Fjeldstad, Odd-helge & Semboja, Joseph, 2001. "Why People Pay Taxes: The Case of the Development Levy in Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(12), pages 2059-2074, December.
    4. Phelan, Christopher, 2006. "Public trust and government betrayal," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 130(1), pages 27-43, September.
    5. Gregory N. Price, 2012. "Race, Trust in Government, and Self-Employment," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 57(2), pages 171-187, November.
    6. Timmons, Jeffrey F. & Garfias, Francisco, 2015. "Revealed Corruption, Taxation, and Fiscal Accountability: Evidence from Brazil," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 13-27.
    7. Habibov, Nazim & Cheung, Alex & Auchynnikava, Alena, 2017. "Does social trust increase willingness to pay taxes to improve public healthcare? Cross-sectional cross-country instrumental variable analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 25-34.
    8. Jeff R. Clark & Dwight R. Lee, 2001. "The Optimal Trust in Government," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 27(1), pages 19-34, Winter.
    9. John E. Anderson, 2017. "Trust in Government and Willingness to Pay Taxes in Transition Countries," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 59(1), pages 1-22, March.
    10. Oh, Hyungna & Hong, Jong Ho, 2012. "Citizens’ trust in government and their willingness-to-pay," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 115(3), pages 345-347.
    11. Nazim Habibov & Alex Cheung & Alena Auchynnikava, 2017. "Does trust increase willingness to pay higher taxes to help the needy?," International Social Security Review, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 70(3), pages 3-30, July.
    12. Wiser, Ryan H., 2007. "Using contingent valuation to explore willingness to pay for renewable energy: A comparison of collective and voluntary payment vehicles," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(3-4), pages 419-432, May.
    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. Byaro, Mwoya & Mafwolo, Gemma & Ngereza, Caroline, 2023. "Does unemployment in sub-Saharan Africa have asymmetric effects on health? A panel quantile approach," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 28(C).

    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. John E. Anderson, 2017. "Trust in Government and Willingness to Pay Taxes in Transition Countries," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 59(1), pages 1-22, March.
    2. Keefer, Philip & Scartascini, Carlos & Vlaicu, Razvan, 2022. "Demand-side determinants of public spending allocations: Voter trust, risk and time preferences," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    3. Amadou Boly & Maty Konte & Abebe Shimeles, 2021. "Corruption Perception and Attitude Towards Taxation in Africa [To Pay or Not to Pay? Citizens’ Attitudes Toward Taxation in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and South Africa]," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 30(Supplemen), pages 140-157.
    4. Ankush Goyal & Rajender Kumar, 2022. "Does Social Welfare Programmes Influence Households Trust in Local Administration and Their Political Participation? Evidence from the MGNREG Scheme in India," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 16(3), pages 602-617, December.
    5. Boly, Amadou & Konte, Maty & Shimeles, Abebe, 2019. "Corruption and tax morale in Africa," MERIT Working Papers 2019-042, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    6. Peter Dolton & Mehmet Kutluay & Richard S.J. Tol, 2019. "Attitudes Towards Public Health Spending: The Case of the National Health Service in the United Kingdom," Working Paper Series 0719, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    7. Oh, Hyungna & Hong, Jong Ho, 2012. "Citizens’ trust in government and their willingness-to-pay," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 115(3), pages 345-347.
    8. Agumas Alamirew Mebratu, 2024. "Theoretical foundations of voluntary tax compliance: evidence from a developing country," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-8, December.
    9. Frings, Oliver & Abildtrup, Jens & Montagné-Huck, Claire & Gorel, Salomé & Stenger, Anne, 2023. "Do individual PES buyers care about additionality and free-riding? A choice experiment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    10. Collewet, Marion & Fairley, Kim & Kessels, Roselinde & Knoef, Marike & van Vliet, Olaf, 2024. "The design of welfare: unraveling taxpayers' preferences," OSF Preprints 4am7e, Center for Open Science.
    11. Colin C. Williams, 2023. "A Modern Guide to the Informal Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 18668.
    12. Choi, Andy S., 2013. "Nonmarket values of major resources in the Korean DMZ areas: A test of distance decay," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 97-107.
    13. repec:eur:ejesjr:373 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Nicolas Vieille, 2010. "Recursive Methods in Discounted Stochastic Games: An Algorithm for - 1 and a Folk Theorem," Post-Print hal-00543616, HAL.
    15. Nicolli, Francesco & Vona, Francesco, 2012. "The Evolution of Renewable Energy Policy in OECD Countries: Aggregate Indicators and Determinants," Climate Change and Sustainable Development 130897, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    16. Elizabeth A. Obeng & Kwame A. Oduro & Beatrice D. Obiri, 2024. "Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior in Predicting US Residents’ Willingness to Pay to Restore Degraded Tropical Rainforest Watersheds," Journal of Sustainable Development, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 12(6), pages 1-62, July.
    17. Dossè Mawussi Djahini‐Afawoubo, 2024. "Understanding tax payment behaviour in the West African Economic and Monetary Union: The role of perceived detection capacity and honesty," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(2), pages 795-823, March.
    18. Ronconi, Lucas & Zarazaga S.J., Rodrigo, 2015. "Labor Exclusion and the Erosion of Citizenship Responsibilities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 453-461.
    19. Fikru, Mahelet G. & Gautier, Luis, 2023. "Consumption and production of cleaner energy by prosumers," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    20. Tabi, Andrea & Hille, Stefanie Lena & Wüstenhagen, Rolf, 2014. "What makes people seal the green power deal? — Customer segmentation based on choice experiment in Germany," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 206-215.
    21. repec:idq:ictduk:13726 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Harry Pei, 2020. "Reputation Building under Observational Learning," Papers 2006.08068, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2020.

    More about this item

    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:wly:povpop:v:12:y:2020:i:1:p:73-83. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1944-2858 .

    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.