Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/249483 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Working Paper No. 2021/177
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
This paper combines cross-national statistical analysis and in-depth historical case studies of Argentina and Chile to explore the relationship between two crucial dimensions of state capacity. We show that information capacity contributes to the development of fiscal capacity. States require accurate information about their subject populations, territories, and economies in order to effectively mobilize revenues. In developing this argument this paper makes three broader contributions. First, while existing scholarship either treats distinct dimensions of capacity as separate entities, or simply assumes that they complement each other, our findings urge scholars to treat state development as sequential and to further investigate how multiple dimensions of state capacity are interrelated. Second, the paper suggests a broader underlying set of mechanisms-economies of scope-which connect these dimensions, and explores them in the specific context of the dependency of fiscal capacity on information capacity. Third, we join scholarship on the importance of societal compliance in the creation of the fiscal state, but with a focus on elite compliance with the state's information collection efforts, which was crucial to tax state development.
Subjects: 
state capacity
information capacity
fiscal capacity
taxation
state formation
mixed methods
Latin America
JEL: 
C23
H20
H83
N46
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-92-9267-117-4
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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