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    Migrants’ remittances, the fiscal contract and tax attitudes in Africa and Latin America

    López García, A.I. and Maydom, Barry (2023) Migrants’ remittances, the fiscal contract and tax attitudes in Africa and Latin America. Political Studies 71 (4), pp. 1025-1046. ISSN 0032-3217.

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    Abstract

    How does the receipt of remittances shape recipients’ attitudes towards taxation? We argue that remittances are likely to reduce support for the fiscal contract of taxes in exchange for public services because recipients rely less on the national economy and the state for their well-being. Remittance recipients can use the money sent by friends or family overseas to obtain public services in the private market instead of, or in addition to, tax-funded welfare services. In doing so, remittance recipients become detached from the national political community and develop a transactional relationship with the state whereby they pay license fees, taxes and bribes to protect investment goods procured with remittances, making them less willing to support general taxation and more likely to approve of tax evasion and avoidance. We find strong support for our theory in analysis of survey data from Africa and Latin America. Our paper contributes to knowledge of the micro-foundations of the fiscal contract and the political-economic effects of emigration and remittances on migrants’ homelands.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): international remittances, taxation, welfare, Africa, Latin America, migration
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences
    Depositing User: Barry Maydom
    Date Deposited: 11 Nov 2021 12:55
    Last Modified: 26 Oct 2023 18:44
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/46228

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