IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ukc/ukcedp/1605.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Revenue Implication of Trade Liberalisation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Some new evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Lanre Kassim

Abstract

Despite the advent of trade liberalisation, trade taxes still remain a huge source of tax revenues in Sub-Saharan Africa. Further trade reforms in the form of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) could, however, hinder output growth in the region if these reforms lead to a decline in total tax revenues. Motivated by this conundrum, our paper adopts panel data estimators to investigate the impact of trade liberalisation on total tax revenue across 28 Sub-Saharan African countries from 1981 to 2010. We also analysed the impact of freer trade policies on trade and domestic tax revenues. The results indicate that trade liberalisation is associated with an increase in total tax revenues. Also, the reduction of trade tariffs significantly increases and decreases domestic and trade tax revenues, respectively. In addition, greater urbanisation is associated with an increase in total tax revenues while a higher inflation rate decreases tax revenues.

Suggested Citation

  • Lanre Kassim, 2016. "The Revenue Implication of Trade Liberalisation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Some new evidence," Studies in Economics 1605, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    • Handle: RePEc:ukc:ukcedp:1605
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.kent.ac.uk/economics/repec/1605.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ernest Aryeetey, 2002. "Working Paper 41 - Informal Finance for Private Sector Development in Africa," Working Paper Series 175, African Development Bank.
    2. Vito Tanzi, 1989. "The Impact of Macroeconomic Policies on the Level of Taxation and the Fiscal Balance in Developing Countries," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 36(3), pages 633-656, September.
    3. Khattry, Barsha & Mohan Rao, J., 2002. "Fiscal Faux Pas?: An Analysis of the Revenue Implications of Trade Liberalization," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(8), pages 1431-1444, August.
    4. Mr. Alexander Pivovarsky & Mr. Benedict J. Clements & Mr. Sanjeev Gupta & Mr. Erwin H Tiongson, 2003. "Foreign Aid and Revenue Response: Does the Composition of Aid Matter?," IMF Working Papers 2003/176, International Monetary Fund.
    5. Michael Moore & Maurizio Zanardi, 2011. "Does reduced trade tax revenue affect government spending patterns?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 18(5), pages 555-579, 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. Ibhagui, Oyakhilome, 2017. "How Does Foreign Direct Investment Affect Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa? New Evidence from Non-threshold and Threshold Analysis," MPRA Paper 85784, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Michael Takudzwa Pasara & Michael Zuze, 2021. "Can Remittances Boost Tax Revenues in Zimbabwe? A Secondary Quarterly Time Series Analysis," Eurasian Journal of Economics and Finance, Eurasian Publications, vol. 9(2), pages 128-144.
    3. Adewole, Ayooluwa & Shipworth, Michelle & Lemaire, Xavier & Sanderson, Danielle, 2023. "Peer-to-Peer energy trading, independence aspirations and financial benefits among Nigerian households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 174(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. Isaac Kwesi Ofori & Camara Kwasi Obeng & Mark Kojo Armah, 2018. "Exchange rate volatility and tax revenue: Evidence from Ghana," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(1), pages 1537822-153, January.
    2. Brun, Jean-François & Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2017. "Does trade openness contribute to driving financing flows for development?," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2017-06, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    3. Emmanuel Ekow Asmah & Francis Kwaw Andoh & Edem Titriku, 2020. "Trade misinvoicing effects on tax revenue in sub‐Saharan Africa: The role of tax holidays and regulatory quality," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 91(4), pages 649-672, December.
    4. Hisali, Eria, 2012. "Trade policy reform and international trade tax revenue in Uganda," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 2144-2154.
    5. James Boyce, 2007. "Public Finance, Aid and Post-Conflict Recovery," Working Papers wp140, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    6. Agbeyegbe, Terence D. & Stotsky, Janet & WoldeMariam, Asegedech, 2006. "Trade liberalization, exchange rate changes, and tax revenue in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 261-284, April.
    7. James Boyce, 2008. "Post-Conflict Recovery: Resource Mobilization and Peacebuilding," Working Papers wp159, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    8. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2019. "Financial Development and Tax Revenue in Developing Countries: Investigating the International Trade and Economic Growth Channels," EconStor Preprints 206628, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    9. James K. Boyce, 2007. "Public finance, aid and post-conflict recovery," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2007-09, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    10. Manamba Epaphra & Lucas E. Kaaya, 2020. "Tax Revenue Effect of Sectoral Growth and Public Expenditure in Tanzania: An application of Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model," Romanian Economic Business Review, Romanian-American University, vol. 15(3), pages 81-120, September.
    11. Mahdavi, Saeid, 2008. "The level and composition of tax revenue in developing countries: Evidence from unbalanced panel data," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 607-617, October.
    12. Ahmad, Khalil & Ali, Safdar & Ali, Amjad, 2018. "Trade Revenue Implications of Trade Liberalization in Pakistan," MPRA Paper 87529, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Salar, Laleena & Zaman, Khalid & Khilji, Bashir Ahmad & Khan, Muhammad Mushtaq & Lodhi, Mohammad Saeed, 2013. "The consequences of revenue gap in Pakistan: Unveiling the reality," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 281-294.
    14. Khalil Ahmad & Amjad Ali & Michael Yang, 2022. "The Effect Of Trade Liberalization On Expenditure Structure Of Pakistan," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 11(1), pages 73-84, March.
    15. Natalia Porto & Noelia Garbero & Fernando Bazán, 2011. "El proceso de apertura comercial en Argentina y su relación con los ingresos fiscales," CEFIP, Working Papers 005, CEFIP, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    16. Leanora Alecia Brown & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2015. "International Debt Forgiveness: Who Gets Picked and Its Effect On The Tax Effort Of Developing Countries," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1504, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    17. Hiroyuki Hino & Atsushi Iimi, 2008. "Aid Effectiveness Revisited: Comparative Studies of Modalities of Aid to Asia and Africa," Discussion Paper Series 218, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.
    18. Feeny, Simon, 2007. "Foreign Aid and Fiscal Governance in Melanesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 439-453, March.
    19. Godin, M. & Hindriks, J., 2015. "A Review of Critical Issues on Tax Design and Tax Administration in a Global Economy and Developing Countries," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2015028, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    20. Aparicio, Sebastian & Urbano, David & Audretsch, David, 2016. "Institutional factors, opportunity entrepreneurship and economic growth: Panel data evidence," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 45-61.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Trade liberalisation; Generalised method of moments; Fixed effects; Tax revenue; Sub-Saharan Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

    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:ukc:ukcedp:1605. 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: Dr Anirban Mitra (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.kent.ac.uk/economics/ .

    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.