Tax Bargaining, Fiscal Contracts, and Fiscal Capacity in Ghana: A Long-Term Perspective
Aboagye, Prince Young LU and Hillbom, Ellen LU
(2020)
- Abstract
- In 2016, the average tax revenue as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) was 26.15 percent for OECD countries, but only 15.47 percent for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Some scholars attribute SSA countries’ weak tax capacity to administrative and technical challenges, their large informal sector, and colonial legacies (Burgess & Stern, 1993; Mkandawire, 2010). Others acknowledge that political bargaining between actors over the design and implementation of fiscal contracts and government’s responsiveness equally shape a state’s ability to tax (Levi, 1988; Prichard, 2015). We explore how the relationship between politics and taxation has historically played out in Ghana.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/d9925a97-7c6a-4497-ac2b-af27b2a2bb4f
- author
- Aboagye, Prince Young
LU
and Hillbom, Ellen
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2020-10-21
- type
- Other contribution
- publication status
- published
- subject
- publisher
- Frontiers in African Economic History
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- d9925a97-7c6a-4497-ac2b-af27b2a2bb4f
- alternative location
- https://www.aehnetwork.org/blog/tax-bargaining-fiscal-contracts-and-fiscal-capacity-in-ghana-a-long-term-perspective/
- date added to LUP
- 2026-01-15 21:07:56
- date last changed
- 2026-01-16 10:15:27
@misc{d9925a97-7c6a-4497-ac2b-af27b2a2bb4f,
abstract = {{In 2016, the average tax revenue as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) was 26.15 percent for OECD countries, but only 15.47 percent for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Some scholars attribute SSA countries’ weak tax capacity to administrative and technical challenges, their large informal sector, and colonial legacies (Burgess & Stern, 1993; Mkandawire, 2010). Others acknowledge that political bargaining between actors over the design and implementation of fiscal contracts and government’s responsiveness equally shape a state’s ability to tax (Levi, 1988; Prichard, 2015). We explore how the relationship between politics and taxation has historically played out in Ghana.}},
author = {{Aboagye, Prince Young and Hillbom, Ellen}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{10}},
publisher = {{Frontiers in African Economic History}},
title = {{Tax Bargaining, Fiscal Contracts, and Fiscal Capacity in Ghana: A Long-Term Perspective}},
url = {{https://www.aehnetwork.org/blog/tax-bargaining-fiscal-contracts-and-fiscal-capacity-in-ghana-a-long-term-perspective/}},
year = {{2020}},
}