Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. The Political Economy of Taxation in Latin America
  • Cited by 10
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
June 2019
Print publication year:
2019
Online ISBN:
9781108655934
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108655934
Subjects:
Area Studies, Latin American Studies, Politics and International Relations, Latin American Government, Politics and Policy, Comparative Politics
Information

Book description

Paying taxes is one of the least popular activities worldwide. Latin America in particular is notorious for having low direct taxes, weak compliance and enforcement, and high levels of inequality. Although fiscal extraction has gained renewed interest among governments in recent years, with the end of the commodity boom adding special urgency, the successful adoption and implementation of tax reforms is easier said than done, even when tax policy prescriptions are widely shared. This volume provides the first comprehensive, region-wide assessment of the role of political factors, including public opinion, democratic institutions, natural resources, interest groups, political ideology, and state capacity. What explains the region's low levels of taxation? What explains the low progressivity in its tax structure? And what explains considerable differences across countries? In addressing these questions, each of the volume's chapters makes original theoretical and empirical contributions toward understanding how to overcome the political challenges to taxation.

Reviews

'This is a much-needed volume on the political underpinning of taxation in Latin America. It provides crucial contributions to understand the political factors explaining the relative low levels of taxation in the region as well as variation across countries. This very important book is a must-read both for scholars of comparative political economy and Latin American politics as well as for practitioners seeking to understand the possibilities of fiscal reforms that can help the region build more effective states.'

Maria Victoria Murillo - Columbia University, New York

'Notwithstanding a growing body of literature on state capacity, income inequality, and problems of democracy in Latin America, we still know surprisingly little about how governments in the region tax their populations. This volume brings together theoretical and empirical contributions by some of the leading scholars in the field, and goes a considerable distance towards filling this gap.'

Robert R. Kaufman - Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University, New Jersey

‘No reader of the volume will come away empty-handed. All the chapters make it clear that Latin America taxes little, badly, and unfairly.’

Source: Comparative Politics

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

Contents

Contents

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Book summary page views

Total views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.