RFPs: The Political Economy of Taxation Project

This project is part of the Domestic Revenue Mobilization (DRM) programme and supported by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad). Proposals for original research that speaks to the core themes of this project and offers strong empirical or theoretical contributions will be considered.

Focus Areas

• In particular, they are interested in proposals that advance theoretical and empirical knowledge on the following:
  • Taxation and the social contract: What are citizens and elites’ preferences for direct and indirect taxation? Does progressive taxation increase tax compliance? How do the elites respond to changes in taxation? When does trust in state institutions increase? Under what conditions do they see a shift from indirect to direct taxation?
  • Taxation and the governance dividend: Does taxation improve governance? Which taxes are more likely to produce a governance dividend? Is it taxation on labour or taxation on capital that leads to a governance dividend? Focus on Africa: Under what conditions do they see a governance dividend in this region?
  • Taxation in resource rich economies: Which political institutions may facilitate taxation in resource-abundant countries? And, why do such political institutions emerge in some resource-abundant countries and not in others? Do they need these institutions in place prior to the discovery of natural resources? If so, for low-income countries that already had weak institutions of political accountability prior to the discovery of natural resources, how can the fiscal resource curse be avoided?
• They are particularly interested in proposals that make a strong empirical contribution or use innovative datasets for low-income countries, particularly in Africa. They are also interested in comparative case studies of countries that could increase their tax capacity relative other countries at similar levels of economic development. Proposals that conduct systematic reviews and theoretical analysis which expand the research frontier in LMICs, and other data-limited contexts are also welcome.

Funding Information

• The papers will be published in the WIDER Working Paper series with the goal of future publication in high-quality journals in economics, political science, development studies, or related fields.
• For successful proposals, individual researchers will be issued UNU Consultant Contracts (CTC), while non-profit organizations will be issued UNU Institutional Contractual Agreements (ICA). A total research honorarium of USD 6,000–10,000 will be paid in two installments depending on the qualifications of the lead researcher and assessment of the proposal. The first payment will be made following delivery of a satisfactory first draft paper, and the second payment will be made after submission and review of the revised full version of the working paper. The deliverables must be deemed acceptable by UNU-WIDER’s project focal point before payment is made. The honorarium is expected to cover all expenses associated with the conduct of the proposed research (including data collection, research assistance, etc.). It is not required to submit a budget.

Eligibility Criteria

• UNU-WIDER invites proposals from qualified researchers for papers examining political economy factors which explain taxation in lower-income countries.
• Proposals from individuals, groups of individuals, as well as non-profit organizations, are welcome.
• They highly encourage junior and early-career scholars to submit a research proposal either as individuals or with a senior collaborator as a research group
• Each proposal will be reviewed for scientific merit and feasibility. Proposals will be selected on the basis of three criteria:
  • relevance to the research project,
  • strength of theoretical or empirical contribution, and
  • clarity of writing.
• Preference will be given to applications from early career and female scholars, as well as researchers from the Global South. Ideal applicants should hold a recent PhD in economics, political science or a related field (or be near PhD completion).

For more information, visit UNU-WIDER.