The ICTD Government Revenue Dataset
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Date
2014-09Author
Prichard, Wilson
Cobham, Alex
Goodall, Andrew
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Abstract
A major obstacle to cross-country research on the role of revenue and taxation in
development has been the weakness of available data. This paper presents a new
Government Revenue Dataset (GRD), developed through the International Centre for Tax
and Development (ICTD). The dataset meticulously combines data from several major
international databases, as well as drawing on data compiled from all available International
Monetary Fund (IMF) Article IV reports. It achieves marked improvements in data coverage
and accuracy, including a standardised approach to revenue from natural resources, and
holds the promise of significant improvement in the credibility and robustness of research in
this area. This paper sets out the issues with existing sources and explains the process of
creating the new dataset, including a discussion of remaining limitations. It then presents
data on tax and revenue trends over the past two decades, while a concluding section briefly
considers potential strategies for, and barriers to, more effective data collection in future.