Book projects 

Revenue and power: Informal fiscal orders and the making of the state

Across much of the world, informal taxes, fees and labour contributions constitute a substantial share of local public goods financing, shaping citizens’ real fiscal burdens, distributive outcomes and experiences of statehood. Yet these practices remain largely invisible in dominant accounts of taxation, political authority and development. Revenue and Power argues that informal revenue generation is not peripheral to the state, but a mechanism through which political authority is exercised, and states are made in practice. It develops the concept of informal fiscal orders: patterned, institutionalised configurations through which states engage with informal fiscal institutions, shaping power, citizenship, redistribution and statebuilding. Drawing on more than fifteen years of research and fieldwork in Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia, with comparative evidence from other lower-income contexts, the book offers a fiscally grounded account of the state and shows that, to fully understand the state, we need to look beyond it. 

Taxing Poverty: Why it happens and how we stop it (with Max Gallien)

Low-income workers, households and entrepreneurs contribute extensively to public revenues across much of the world, including through direct and indirect taxes, municipal fees and licences, user fees, and informal taxes and payments. These contributions can add up to substantial and deeply unequal fiscal burdens, while often providing little in return through services or accountability. Taxing Poverty examines how tax systems in lower-income countries have come to disproportionately burden those least able to pay, while leaving large segments of wealth and profit undertaxed. It traces how global and national pressures, political settlements, donor-driven tax reform and influential ideas about “broadening the tax base” and “formalising” informal economies have helped normalise the systematic taxation of poverty. Drawing on extensive original research across Africa and South Asia, the book explores what taxing poverty means for inequality, livelihoods, state–society relations and the social contract, and asks what a realistic pathway towards a more equitable fiscal world might look like.

Papers under review

Informality, tax, and markets in Kinshasa: Everyday realities and everyday resistance (with Yannick Bokasola, Eddy Ngwakoyo, and Gayatri Sahgal) (R&R)

• This paper explores the everyday realities of taxation in Kinshasa's markets, which play a crucial role in both local revenue generation and the livelihoods of the population. Understanding market taxation in this context is crucial given that formal state authority intersects with and is often embedded in informal institutions and governance structures, and a plurality of state and non-state actors engage in revenue extraction. The study draws on qualitative data collected from eight formal, informal, and customary markets in Kinshasa, including through focus group discussions with market vendors, interviews with key actors involved in market governance and taxation, and ethnographic observations of tax collection and relationships between vendors and collectors. The documents the experiences of market vendors, their perceptions of taxation, and how these perceptions shape their interactions with the state and their willingness to pay taxes while also capturing differences in everyday experiences based on structural differences in market governance. Key findings reveal that market vendors are subject to multiple layers of formal and informal taxation, with a prevalence of coercive tax collection practices and informality in the administration of taxes. Correspondingly, vendors widely view market-based taxation as unfair, though some likewise report greater willingness to pay informal taxes because they see tangible benefits, such as protection from gangs. Formal taxes are perceived as offering few returns. In this context, everyday resistance to taxation is common, but given the vulnerable positions of most vendors and the limited channels for accountability, the paper finds few instances of broader challenges to tax systems or demands for reform.  The study also finds distinct differences in the tax collection experiences across formal, informal, and customary markets, with market taxation led by customary authorities eliciting a greater sense of fairness and voluntary compliance. These findings contribute to the broader literature on informal institutions and taxation, providing a case study of the everyday experiences of both market vendors and tax collectors and documenting the micro-level dynamics that shape tax morale, perceptions of fairness, and resistance in a context of pluralised tax and governance authority.
  
  

The politics and practices of zakat: Distributional biases and gender equity in Pakistan (with Max Gallien and Umair Javed) 

• Zakat, an annual mandatory payment on productive wealth and one of the five pillars of Islam, represents the largest non-state welfare system in the world. Despite its significance as a redistributive mechanism, little is known about its actual distributional impacts. The decentralised nature of zakat distribution in some contexts raises critical questions about whether it overcomes or reinforces social and economic exclusions by favouring certain groups over others. This paper examines the distributional patterns and biases in zakat giving in Pakistan, a key case for understanding non-state welfare provision in a large Muslim-majority country with predominantly decentralised, individually-based zakat giving. Drawing on a novel nationally representative survey of 7,500 Sunni Muslims and employing conjoint survey experiments, supplemented by qualitative data, we assess who is most likely to receive zakat and explore potential biases based on gender and ethnicity. Our findings reveal that zakat giving is widespread, surpassing the scale of Pakistan’s largest social protection program, the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), and international development assistance. Despite women being marginalised in society and less visible in public spaces, women, particularly widows, are disproportionately likely to receive zakat. We find limited evidence of systematic ethnic bias, though partisan affiliations appear to shape giving patterns. These findings contribute to debates on non-state social welfare and redistribution in low-income contexts. They highlight the need to conceptualise zakat as a major redistributive institution and underscore its policy implications for state welfare, development actors, and social equity in Pakistan and beyond.

• Pre-analysis plan

Faith and fairness? Does zakat crowd out support for wealth taxation? (with Max Gallien and Umair Javed)

• In an era of rising global inequality and increasing fiscal demands, wealth taxation has regained prominence in policy debates as a tool to address both equity and revenue concerns. Does the existence of non-state forms of wealth redistribution constrain public support for wealth taxes? This question is particularly relevant in Muslim-majority countries, where many people already pay zakat, a mandatory religious payment typically conceptualised as 2.5 per cent of the productive wealth over a set threshold. We explore this question in Pakistan, leveraging a novel survey that describes the zakat practices and tax views of 7,500 adult Sunni Muslims. We find that zakat payment is strongly and significantly associated with lower support for state-levied wealth taxes, as well as a range of other progressive tax measures. Exploring variation in zakat saliency giving provides a strong indication that this effect is causal. This finding has substantial implications for the potential and communication of wealth taxes in Muslim-majority countries and underscores the need for more empirical work on the interaction of state- and non-state redistribution. 

• Pre-analysis plan

Co-Financing Public Goods in Fragile Contexts: Navigating Trade-offs Between Participatory Development, Equity and State Building (with Tanya Bandula-Irwin and Ana Isabel López García)

• In fragile contexts, governments often struggle to mobilise domestic revenue to finance public goods, while shrinking aid budgets have increased interest in innovative development financing mechanisms. Co-financing mechanisms – combining resources raised by communities with funds contributed by donors and/or the state – have emerged as one such approach, drawing on informal taxation, community contributions, and diaspora financing to expand the provision of public goods. Yet there has been limited systematic analysis of how different co-financing arrangements are governed, the conditions under which they are likely to succeed, and the trade-offs they create for development and governance outcomes. This paper addresses that gap by examining how different institutional configurations of co-financing shape public goods delivery, participation, equity, social cohesion, and state-building in fragile contexts. It develops a typology of co-financing mechanisms based on the respective roles of communities, donors, and the state, and combines this conceptual framework with a comparative analysis of co-financing programmes in Mexico and Somalia, which reflect contrasting trajectories of co-financing models over time. The analysis draws on academic and policy literature, programme evaluations, operational planning documents, digital platform data, and the authors’ direct experience evaluating co-financing initiatives in Somalia. Building on these cases and the wider literature, the paper synthesises evidence on the governance outcomes of co-financing and identifies the principal trade-offs that policymakers and development partners must navigate when designing co-financing mechanisms in fragile contexts. The evidence shows that co-financing can effectively mobilise resources, deliver public goods, strengthen community participation and ownership, and, under certain conditions, foster social cohesion and reinforce perceptions of state legitimacy. At the same time, it can reproduce inequalities within and across communities, exclude marginalised groups, create opportunities for elite capture and political manipulation, and, in some contexts, exacerbate conflict dynamics and weaken state institutions. These outcomes are shaped both by how authority, financing responsibilities, and accountability are shared among communities, donors, and the state, and by the political, social, and security contexts within which co-financing operates. Rather than presenting co-financing as a universal solution, the paper argues that its effectiveness depends on careful, context- and conflict-sensitive programme design that explicitly recognises and manages the trade-offs between effectiveness and equity, institutionalisation and community ownership, and accountability and sustainability.

Papers in progress

Informal contributions and crisis responses: Four facts from Rwanda and Sierra Leone (With Giulia Mascagni and Nicolas Orgeira Pillai)

• In many low-income contexts, public goods and services are financed not only through formal taxation but also via informal contributions—non-state, non-market payments often organised through community or customary institutions. During crises, these bottom-up mechanisms often become especially prominent, yet their implications remain underexplored. Drawing on unique panel survey data collected throughout the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Rwanda and Sierra Leone, this paper examines the scale, distribution, and perceived legitimacy of informal crisis financing. Despite stark differences in state capacity and sample composition across the two countries, four findings emerge. First, informal contributions were widespread and often exceeded engagement with formal tax systems. Second, though higher-income individuals are more likely to contribute overall, contributions are regressive: lower-income individuals contribute a larger share of their income than wealthier counterparts. Third, these contributions were widely perceived as fair, likely due to their ties to trusted informal institutions, elite participation, and heightened pandemic-era solidarity. Fourth, respondents expressed greater support for informal and voluntary contributions than for formal tax increases as a means of crisis financing. While these findings highlight the centrality of informal crisis responses, they also underscore the equity risks of relying on informal mechanisms—particularly without adequate state-based relief. The study sheds light on the political economy of crisis response in low-income settings and calls for greater investment in progressive, inclusive formal taxation.

Labour, tax, and development: Shifting norms around labour taxes from the colonial era to today 

• Informal labour taxes have a long history in former African colonies, though they have not been included in analyses of individual tax burdens and the effective revenue of labour taxes has not been recorded by formal public finance institutions. They have taken a number of forms—from conscripted labour for public works projects in the colonial era to mandated communal labour in the post-independence era—and have been integral to the expansion of state authority. I explore informal labour taxes in Sierra Leone from the colonial period to the present day. I rely on historical records, a unique dataset capturing contemporary informal labour contributions, and over a year of qualitative data collection and ethnographic immersion in nine chiefdom case studies. I trace the perceived legitimacy of informal labour taxes over time, showing how they went from being perceived as “forced labour” to being openly embraced by states and development partners. Once normalised by colonial authorities, a growing international labour movement came to see them as illegitimate. Over time, however, the colonial state reframed them as part of “traditional” obligations, legitimising and institutionalising them in colonial law. In the post-independence period, they were seen as central to the “self-reliance” movement. Later shifts in development theory and praxis saw informal labour taxes as indicators of “ownership”, “participation”, and “sustainability”. Accordingly, the epistemic development community has revived and re-legitimised informal labour taxes. Though the relative legitimacy of informal labour taxes has shifted over time, states and development partners insufficiently appreciate the burden of mandatory unpaid labour on individuals, or how informal labour taxes have contributed to the expansion of state power over time.

Catch them if you can: The politics and practice of a taxpayer registration exercise (with Max Gallien and Giovanni Occhiali)

• Tax registration drives have become an increasingly popular intervention to expand the coverage of tax nets across Sub-Saharan Africa. However, doubts have recently been cast on their impact and their overrepresentation of vulnerable groups. Little explanation is available for why this is the case, as the literature focuses on the outcomes of these exercises rather than their processes and premises. We seek to fill this gap by evaluating a tax registration exercise for small and medium-sized enterprises in Freetown, Sierra Leone, implemented by the National Revenue Authority. We argue that conflicting objectives between national and international stakeholders, as well as between street- and higher-level officials, combined with a technocratic view of the exercise that underestimates its political nature, led to a likely unsatisfactory outcome in revenue terms. However, we also identify non-revenue outcomes that may still be seen as positive from policymakers' perspectives, such as familiarising many businesses with a revenue authority they previously had little engagement with. While similar evaluations often overlook this outcome of registration exercises, local officials recognise it as important in “building future taxpayers”.

The political economy of taxation in Somalia: Historical legacies, informal institutions, and political settlements (with Najibullah Nor Isak)

• This paper investigates the political economy of weak taxation in Somalia, tracing the historical, institutional, and political factors that underpin the country’s low tax-to-GDP ratio of approximately 2%. Challenging conventional narratives that attribute Somalia’s weak tax capacity solely to state collapse and conflict, the study situates contemporary challenges within a broader historical context of pre- and post-colonial governance structures, reliance on trade taxes, and institutionalised informality. Drawing on qualitative data from the federal government and states and comparative insights from Somaliland, the paper examines how fragmented tax authority, elite bargains, and informal tax negotiations hinder centralised tax systems. It highlights the role of political settlements in shaping the state’s limited capacity and willingness to tax, with elites leveraging tax forbearance to maintain political stability and support. The analysis argues that technocratic tax reforms often fail in conflict-affected states because they cannot address underlying power dynamics and informal institutions. Instead, it advocates for politically aligned reforms that account for entrenched elite interests and historical legacies. By contextualising Somalia’s taxation challenges within a political settlement framework, the study contributes to broader debates on state-building, revenue mobilisation, and governance in fragile states.

Statebuilding and the social contract in dual polities (with Kevin Grieco)

• Taxation and state-building transform citizens’ relationships with political institutions, yet these processes often unfold in dual polities where weak state institutions coexist with traditional political institutions (TPIs) that anchor local governance. How does state expansion affect citizens’ social contracts with both the state and TPIs? We leverage a property tax reform in Sierra Leone’s Bombali District that created a sharp discontinuity in tax demands, imposing a hard administrative boundary through Bombali Sebora Chiefdom, where TPIs remain central to political life. We find that taxation reduces both contributions to and political engagement with TPIs. At the same time, treated property owners shift their dispute resolution preferences toward chiefs and, more suggestively, update negatively about the state across a range of attitudinal measures. These results suggest that state-building crowds out TPIs’ role in local service provision, but does so at the cost of government legitimacy, at least in the short term.

• Pre-analysis plan

Building resilience in fragile contexts: Bridging taxation and resilience for more effective statebuilding (with Jonathan Papouilidis)

• In the context of shrinking aid budgets, rising conflict, climate shocks, and growing economic instability, there is renewed urgency to identify more effective approaches to resilience and statebuilding in fragile contexts. While resilience has become a central organising principle for humanitarian, peace and development policy, taxation remains largely absent from resilience frameworks. Conversely, although taxation has become central to debates on domestic resource mobilisation and statebuilding, it is rarely analysed through a resilience lens. This separation limits our understanding of both fragility and the politically feasible pathways through which more resilient states and societies can emerge. This paper argues that taxation should be integrated into resilience analysis as both a foundational state institution and a powerful analytical lens for understanding fragile contexts. We propose a Tax and Resilience Framework that uses taxation to analyse four interconnected dimensions of fragility: the risk landscape, political settlements, societal resilience capacities, and state resilience capacities. Rather than focusing solely on formal tax systems, the framework examines how formal and informal fiscal institutions shape authority, livelihoods, public goods, service delivery, and governance, revealing dimensions of fragility and resilience often overlooked by conventional approaches. Integrating taxation into resilience analysis gives governments and development partners a more grounded, politically informed understanding of how fragile contexts function, where reform opportunities may exist, and how to support more resilient and inclusive pathways to statebuilding.

Data collection in progress

Traditional political institutions, taxation and statebuilding in Sierra Leone (with Kevin Grieco), 2024-27

Armed group taxation dataset (with Tanya Bandula-Irwin, Max Gallien, Ashley Jackson, and Florian Weigand), 2024-27

Services first: Trust and taxation in Accra's informal economy (with Nana Akua Anyidoho, Max Gallien, and Mike Rogan), 2024-29