ICTD Government Revenue Dataset

Over the past four years I have led the construction of the International Centre for Tax and Development Government Revenue Dataset (GRD), which is now the best available source of cross-country government tax and revenue data for research. Relative to other sources it offers dramatically improved data coverage and analytical accuracy. Thanks are due to, among others, Alex Cobham, with whom I have worked in directing the project, and Andrew Goodall, Fariya Mohiuddin, Kyle McNabb, Vanessa van den Boogaard and Ava Dayna-Sefa for their important work in assembling the data.

The most recent version of the Government Revenue Dataset—released in September 2018—is open and free to use. The primary data file (core dataset) is available for download in two formats and can be downloaded from UNU-WIDER, which now hosts and maintains the GRD.

The GRD contains data on a range of policy-relevant indicators, allowing for analysis of revenue and tax trends over time at the regional or country level. Where possible, figures are also expressed both inclusive and exclusive of natural resource revenues, which helps to overcome a major obstacle to cross-country comparisons in existing data sources.

The Working Paper describing the construction of the dataset is The ICTD Government Revenue Dataset (ICTD Working Paper 19). There is also a 2-page brief about the GRD here (ICTD Research in Brief 10).

Further information about the GRD, including the User Guide and additional documents, are available on the UNU-WIDER website.

Background

The past decade has seen dramatically increased attention to questions related to taxation and revenue in developing countries, from both policymakers and researchers. However, the quality of available cross-country tax and revenue data has remained seriously deficient, potentially leading to highly flawed research results and misplaced policy advice. The ICTD GRD was created and launched in September 2014 by the ICTD at the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C. The goal was to provide a solid basis for more reliable, and comparable, cross-country tax research.

It was accompanied by a series of Working Papers demonstrating the value of the new data in updating, and in sometimes significantly altering, existing research findings. A summary of that work has subsequently been published in World Development, with individual papers also now reaching publication.

The following are the first original Working Papers that employed the GRD:

1. Foreign Aid and Domestic Taxation: Multiple Sources, One Conclusion (ICTD Working Paper 20)

2. Aid and Taxation: Exploring the Relationship Using New Data (ICTD Working Paper 21)

3. Tax Structures, Economic Growth and Development (ICTD Working Paper 22)

4. Taxation, Non-Tax Revenue and Democracy: New Evidence Using New Cross-Country Data (ICTD Working Paper 23)

5. Electoral Competitiveness, Political Budget Cycles and Taxation in Developing Countries (ICTD Working Paper 24)

Using the GRD

Please cite the dataset as ICTD/UNU-WIDER, ‘Government Revenue Dataset’, (version date) https://www.wider.unu.edu/project/government-revenue-dataset

If you have questions about accessing the GRD, please contact the database manager at dbm@wider.unu.edu. If you have specific research questions about the GRD, please contact Kyle McNabb at mcnabb@wider.unu.edu.

Please email the titles of any publications that employ GRD data to the ICTD’s Publications Manager, Camilla Walsh c.walsh@ids.ac.uk.