This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. American Economic Review
  4. Forthcoming Articles
  5. Becoming Legible to the State: The Necessary but Not Sufficient Role of Identification in Taxation

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

Becoming Legible to the State: The Necessary but Not Sufficient Role of Identification in Taxation

  • Oyebola Okunogbe
American Economic Review (Forthcoming)

Abstract

Many lower-income countries know little about their citizens and their tax bases, which hinders effective taxation. This paper studies the impact of making the tax base more “legible” to the state and signaling this legibility to taxpayers. Leveraging a new digitized property database, a randomized experiment in Liberia finds that including identifying information (owners’ names and property photographs) in tax notices quadruples the likelihood of payment from 2 percent to over 8 percent, but only when the notice also details noncompliance penalties. The effects of the intervention persist to the 4th year. These results underscore that both legibility and enforcement are essential for taxation.

Downloads