From 2010-2016 I led the development of what was then the International Centre for Tax and Development Government Revenue Dataset (GRD), ownership of which has since been transferred to UNU-WIDER which hosts and maintains the dataset (here). The Working Paper describing the original construction of the dataset is The ICTD Government Revenue Dataset (ICTD Working Paper 19), along with a 2-page brief about the GRD here (ICTD Research in Brief 10).
The effort to build a new cross-country revenue dataset reflected what were then glaring weaknesses in available international statistics from the IMF, WB and OECD. The goal was to create a better and more appropriate data set for researchers, in order to ensure robust research findings, and to motivate those international organizations to acknowledge and address weakness in their data. We believed that the weakness of cross-country data risked generating misleading research findings, and was a serious barrier to improved tax debate and research.
The effort was enjoyed significant success. The GRD quickly became widely viewed at the best source of cross-country revenue data for researchers, while we produced several papers illustrating that using better data improved the quality of research results – see here for a summary. In turn, the IMF and OECD - and more recently regional organizations like ATAF as well - renewed their efforts to improve their cross-country data, creating significant public benefit.
That effort was co-led with Alex Cobham, and supported by and Andrew Goodall, Fariya Mohiuddin, Kyle McNabb, Vanessa van den Boogaard and Ava Dayna-Sefa. The successful transition of the dataset to UNU-WIDER, and the effort to make it sustainable over time, was led by Kyle McNabb, who continued to lead the project at UNU-WIDER and deserves much of the credit for making the dataset a durable research public good.