Impact of export upgrading on tax revenue in developing and high-income countries
Résumé
Empirical studies usually analyse the relationship between an economy’s
trade sector and tax revenue in developing countries through the e"ect
of trade liberalization on tax revenue. This paper takes a di"erent angle by
examining the impact of export upgrading strategies (export diversi#cation
and improvement in export quality) on non-resource tax revenue. The panel
data-set covers a sample of 172 countries, including both developed and
developing countries, spanning the period 1980–2010. The analysis is
conducted both on the entire sample and sub-samples. The #ndings indicate
that export product upgrading exerts a positive and signi#cant e"ect on
non-resource tax revenue, including for the sub-samples considered, with
the exception of low-income countries for which we observe mixed results.
Moreover, countries which upgrade their export products in a context of
trade openness consistently experience higher non-resource tax revenue,
both in the short and long term.