Gayatri Sahgal (2025). Unpacking Tax Relations in Contexts of Fragility: A Case Study of Somalia. ICTD Working Paper.
This paper examines fiscal relations in contexts of fragility. It focuses on the tax relationship between the post-transitional Somali government and advanced businesses in the telecommunications sector, which emerged during the period of state collapse. The paper poses two specific questions. It asks why such dominant economic players would pay taxes to a state that, per standard tax theory, had limited authority, legitimacy, and capacity to deliver ‘reciprocal returns’ or collective goods and services. Secondly, for a sector that had emerged in the context of statelessness, it interrogates whether some level of state capacity had become ‘pivotal for business’? In doing so, the paper assesses the impact of fiscal relations on broader state-building dynamics.
Enea Baselgia and Isabel Z. Martínez (2025). Mobility Responses to Special Tax Regimes for the Super- Rich: Evidence from Switzerland. The Economic Journal.
We use a novel rich-list dataset to estimate the sensitivity of the location choices of super-rich foreigners to a special tax regime, under which wealthy foreigners are taxed based on their living expenses, rather than their true income and wealth. We are the first to show that, when some Swiss cantons repealed this controversial policy, their stock of super-rich foreigners dropped by 43% as a consequence. We find no response for the Swiss super-rich, who were unaffected by the policy change. The implied wealth and income tax mobility elasticities range between 28.4–32.2 and 1.4–1.5, respectively.
Sascha O. Becker, Amma Panin, Steven Pfaff and Jared Rubin (2025). Religion and economic development: Past, present, and future. CESifo Working Papers.
This chapter examines the role of religion in economic development, both historically and today. Religion’s influence varies globally, with high religiosity in countries like Pakistan and low rates in China. Despite declines in some Western countries, religion remains influential worldwide, with projected growth in Muslim populations due to higher fertility rates. Religion continues to shape societal norms and institutions, such as education and politics, even after its direct influence fades. The chapter explores how religious institutions and norms have impacted economic outcomes, focusing on both persistence and decline. It also examines cultural transmission, institutional entrenchment, networks, and religious competition as mechanisms sustaining religion’s influence. We explore the relationship between religion and secularization, showing that economic development does not always reduce religiosity. Lastly, the chapter highlights gaps in the literature and suggests future research areas on the evolving role of religion in economic development.
Max Gallien, Umair Javed and Vanessa van den Boogaard (2025). Zakat payments in Pakistan exceed state social protection. ICTD Factsheet.
Every year, hundreds of millions of Muslims across the world pay a proportion of their wealth as zakat, one of the five pillars of Islam mandating an annual payment of a proportion of an individual’s productive wealth, broadly representing 2.5 per cent. Consequently, zakat represents a significant part of how redistribution and social protection works in practice. And yet there have been almost no empirically robust estimates of its quantum and effect. Since 2021, a partnership between the ICTD and the Lahore University of Management Sciences has enabled more systematic accounts of how zakat is paid in practice, including through a new nationally representative survey of 7,500 Sunni Pakistanis conducted via computer-assisted telephone interviews in 2024. Using this novel data, this factsheet explains how much zakat we can estimate is being paid in Pakistan every year – and where the money is going.
Clément Joubert and Kathleen Beegle (2025). How organized Is the informal sector? The role of business associations in microenterprises in West Africa. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper.
Although microenterprises are the most prevalent employer
in Africa, boosting their productivity remains a development
challenge. Theoretically, microenterprise business associations could foster technology, improve access to inputs, pool
risk, ensure coordination, and facilitate credit for businesses.
However, basic facts about their scope and roles are missing
from the literature. This study establishes descriptive results
to shed light on the nature of these networks in West Africa.
Wayne A. Sandholtz and Pedro C. Vicente (2025). Tax morale, public goods, and politics: Experimental evidence from Mozambique. Nova SBE Working Paper.
Tax revenue is vital for development, but governments must balance raising revenues with maintaining political support. Partnering with a city government in Mozambique, we experimentally vary the provision of information highlighting the role of municipal tax revenues in 1) local public good provision and 2) local political autonomy. We measure how this information affects property owners’ tax morale and political support for the government. Public goods information raises tax morale, especially in areas of low baseline public good provision, but has no effect on voting. The political message increases electoral support generally, but raises tax morale only among co-partisans. These results suggest that communication about the uses of public revenue offers a politically feasible way to increase tax morale.
