How does petty corruption affect tax morale in Sub-Saharan Africa?

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Jahnke, B. and Weisser, R.A. ORCID: 0000-0002-1717-5697, 2019. How does petty corruption affect tax morale in Sub-Saharan Africa? European Journal of Political Economy, 60: 101751. ISSN 0176-2680

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Official URL: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2018.09.003

Abstract

Revenues from taxation gain in importance to finance economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa. One obstacle to enhancing the willingness to remit taxes can be the extortion of bribes by public officials. Using micro-level data from the Afrobarometer, we show that petty corruption erodes tax morale. The effect on tax morale is more severe in countries and regions where fewer people are affected by petty corruption and becomes insignificant if extortion of bribes is particularly prevalent. Differing levels of civic participation and potential access to tax funded services are also found to induce heterogeneous reactions to corruption experience. Applying a mediation analysis, we demonstrate that petty corruption not only has a direct effect on tax morale but also diminishes confidence in tax authorities and therefore affects tax morale indirectly. The harmful effects of corruption experience, however, operate mainly through a generally lowered inclination to uphold high levels of tax morale.

Item Type:

Journal article

Publication Title:

European Journal of Political Economy

Creators:

Jahnke, B. and Weisser, R.A.

Publisher:

Elsevier

Date:

27 November 2019

Volume:

ISSN: