Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/331525 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Working Paper No. 81/25
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
The digitalization of low-income economies has made it easier for governments to collect tax, yet many still fail to raise adequate revenues. Why would policy makers in urgent need of resources not fully leverage these new tools? I argue that governments remain constrained by public opinion: digital taxes are perceived as unfair, unaccountable, and lacking tangible benefit among the large groups of voters they affect. As a result, public support for digital taxes depends heavily on how they are designed. I test this argument with a conjoint experiment in Malawi focused on mobile transaction levies, a common form of digital tax introduced across Africa that has provoked strong backlash. Specific design choices, like earmarking revenues for local services or exempting small-scale users, can significantly affect support. This underscores broader political constraints on building fiscal capacity, even as technical limits on the state recede.
Subjects: 
digitalization
tax
fiscal capacity
public opinion
conjoint
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-92-9267-640-7
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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