|
on Informal and Underground Economics |
| By: | Radhika Goyal; Anders Jensen; David Lagakos; Abdoulaye Ndiaye; Yuntian Zhao |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the role of government capacity to collect taxes in driving economic development. We first draw on a new macro-historical database to document that tax collections relative to tax administration expenditures rise sharply with GDP per capita. We then interpret this finding in a neoclassical growth model with a tax administration sector in which labor inputs are required to raise tax revenues. Countries differ in their levels of tax productivity, capturing how effectively labor is used to raise taxes, as well as their levels of productivity in creating consumption and investment goods. Governments use tax revenues to provide public capital that complements private factors in production and to make transfers. Quantitatively, our model predicts that increases in tax productivity in low-income economies can raise GDP per capita substantially more than suggested by Hulten’s theorem. |
| Keywords: | tax productivity, growth, development, fiscal capacity, Taxation, ramsey taxation |
| JEL: | E62 H21 H54 H83 O11 O23 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_13061 |
| By: | Ziaba, Isaac |
| Abstract: | How do governing parties regulate informal miners and what explains regulatory response variations? Drawing on Ghana and leveraging original and secondary data, this paper shows that National Democratic Congress (NDC) incumbents tolerated most local miners even when President Mahama raided the informal mining sector. By contrast, while the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP’s) Kufour and Akufo-Addo attacked local miners, Akufo-Addo largely let off Chinese miners and their local collaborators. These dissimilar regulatory responses arise because most local miners appear electorally more salient to the NDC. By contrast, NPP political entrepreneurs cultivated economic ties with Chinese miners while this governing party got hugely indebted to China and was accordingly constrained from sanctioning Chinese miners and their local collaborators. Taken together, I argue that the differential electoral relevancies of local miners to Ghana’s dominant and rival parties, economic ties between domestic political entrepreneurs and Chinese miners, and indebtedness to Beijing can make mining groups more or less salient to parties, producing targeted responses of repression and forbearance.Such instrumental responses undermine ASM formalization, beckoning international financial institutions to tie credit and loan facilities to concrete formalization indicators, which could compel governing elites to adopt non-partisan, holistic, practical, and long-term formalization approaches. |
| Keywords: | political parties;Ghana;China;informal mining;galamsey |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2026–10–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:141097 |
| By: | Arnaud Natal (BSE - Bordeaux sciences économiques - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, IFP - Institut Français de Pondichéry - MEAE - Ministère de l'Europe et des Affaires étrangères - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Damien Girollet (BSE - Bordeaux sciences économiques - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement) |
| Abstract: | How does social proximity between borrowers and lenders influence informal lending terms in rural areas of the Global South? We answer this question using a unique dataset collected in 2020-2021 in rural South India. We examine four dimensions of loan agreements: interest rates, collateral, services provided by lenders and borrowers. We analyse the role of social proximity (i.e., homophily and strength of ties) in determining credit terms using loan-level probit models. We find two key results. First, social proximity operates as an ambivalent resource: while homophily and strong ties reduce the financial cost of borrowing, they are also associated with reciprocal obligations. Second, the benefits of social proximity are unequally distributed across social groups. These findings suggest that informal credit markets are deeply embedded in local hierarchies and that policies addressing household indebtedness must go beyond financial inclusion to tackle the structural inequalities shaping credit relations. |
| Keywords: | Tamil Nadu, Strength of ties, Homophily, Debt, Interpersonal networks |
| Date: | 2027 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05701286 |
| By: | Ivan D Hernandez; Rodrigo Alvarez; Catalina Blanco; Andrés Carvajal |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a theoretical framework and a set of instruments for the encouragement of the emergence of a formal market for financing of new technology-based firms (NTBFs). The characterization attempts to determine particular attributes of this demand by doing a qualitative study of demand agents in Colombia and by doing a comparative study of NTBFs in other countries. Imperfections and distortions of the demand are found, giving a wider vision for the emergence of formal finance market for NTBFs. |
| Keywords: | New technology;based firms (NTBFs); public policy; entrepreneurship; technological change |
| JEL: | O25 L26 L38 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000176:023703 |
| By: | María Angélica Arbeláez (Feedesarrollo); Sandra Oviedo (Fedesarrollo); Mauricio Reina (Fedesarrollo) |
| Abstract: | El estudio analiza la importancia económica y social del pollo y el huevo en Colombia y las posibles consecuencias de modificar su tratamiento en el impuesto al valor agregado (IVA). Al estar clasificados como bienes exentos, sus ventas están gravadas a tarifa cero, lo que permite a los productores descontar y solicitar la devolución del IVA pagado en los insumos. Este mecanismo evita que dicho impuesto se convierta en un mayor costo de producción y termine trasladándose al precio final.------ El análisis muestra que estos alimentos constituyen fuentes de proteína animal ampliamente consumidas y más accesibles en precio que otras proteínas, lo que les otorga especial importancia en las canastas de consumo de los hogares de menores ingresos. La agroindustria avícola, además, aporta a la producción y al valor agregado del país y se caracteriza por una alta participación del consumo intermedio en su estructura productiva.------ La exención del IVA ha favorecido la generación de un círculo virtuoso en la cadena avícola. Los requisitos de facturación electrónica y cumplimiento tributario asociados con la devolución incentivan la formalidad tributaria y la trazabilidad de las operaciones en la cadena. A su vez, una cadena más organizada y formalizada favorece la generación de empleo formal y el cumplimiento de los requisitos sanitarios y ambientales.------ Mediante ejercicios de simulación, el estudio estima los efectos que tendrían sobre la inflación, la demanda y la pobreza los aumentos en los precios del pollo y el huevo asociados con eventuales cambios en su tratamiento como bienes exentos. Los resultados muestran que el aumento en el costo de vida afectaría con mayor intensidad a los hogares pobres y vulnerables, en cuyas canastas estos alimentos tienen una participación más elevada. El encarecimiento reduciría la demanda de pollo y huevo, afectaría la demanda de otras proteínas animales y erosionaría la capacidad adquisitiva de los hogares. Asimismo, al elevar el costo de las canastas básicas utilizadas para medir la pobreza, aumentaría la incidencia de la pobreza monetaria y extrema, lo que supondría un retroceso parcial en los avances alcanzados en su reducción. |
| Keywords: | Cadena Avícola; Exención del IVA; Formalidad y Trazabilidad; Inflación; Política Tributaria; Pobreza Monetaria |
| JEL: | D12 E31 H22 I32 Q11 Q18 |
| Date: | 2026–09–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000124:023801 |
| By: | Viera Mendoza Miguel Antonio; Coloma Bardales, Carlos Eduardo; Fonttis Velez, Paolo Guillermo |
| Abstract: | La investigación analiza el proceso de formalización del Registro Integral de Formalización Minera (REINFO) en Lima Metropolitana desde julio de 2017 hasta mayo de 2024. Se identifican las dificultades que afectan la eficiencia del proceso. Con un enfoque cuantitativo, se examinaron 713 registros, revelando que solo el 0.1% de los solicitantes avanzó a la presentación del expediente técnico, sin formalizaciones completadas. La acreditación de terrenos superficiales es la barrera más crítica. Se concluye que el fracaso del REINFO requiere una reforma integral del marco normativo y operativo de la formalización minera en Perú. |
| Keywords: | Mining, Extraction, and Refining; Other Nonrenewable Resources; Business Administration |
| JEL: | L72 M1 |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ger:tesmgm:0023 |