Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/229234 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Working Paper No. 2020/10
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
States' fiscal capacity plays a pivotal role in developing economies, but it is less clear what its determinants are or what explains cross-country differences. We focus on the impact of natural resources. Standard arguments suggest that natural resources rents may reduce incentives to invest in fiscal capacity. However, political institutions that limit rulers' discretion over the use of resource revenues may mitigate or neutralize this negative effect. We investigate this hypothesis using panel data for 1995 to 2015 for 62 developing countries. The results suggest: (1) point-source resources are negatively associated with fiscal capacity, while diffuse resources are not; (2) developing economies with institutionalized executive constraints can neutralize the negative effect of point-source resources; (3) the effect of resource rents works mainly through institutions that make the tax system accountable and transparent. Thus it is possible to develop both fiscal capacity and the natural resources sector, without any trade-off.
Subjects: 
state capacity
fiscal capacity
resource curse
institutions
constraints on the executive
economic development
JEL: 
D7
N4
O4
P5
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-92-9256-767-5
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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