Calendrier du 27 septembre 2022
PSI-PSE (Petit Séminaire Informel de la Paris School of Economics) Seminar
Du 27/09/2022 de 17:00 à 18:00
R1-13
BLUMENTHAL Benjamin (ETH Zurich)
Policymaking under Influence
Applied Economics Lunch Seminar
Du 27/09/2022 de 12:30 à 13:30
Salle R1.09, Campus Jourdan
KNEBELMANN Justine (Sciences Po)
Widening the Tax Net when Information is Scarce: the Role of Agents’ Discretion
écrit avec Victor Pouliquen (Oxford), Bassirou Sarr (Ministry of Finance, Senegal)
Administrations in developing countries are challenged by the lack of comprehensive information to successfully implement policies that require individual-level tailoring, such as taxation. In collaboration with the Senegalese national tax administration, we developed a property tax census program relying on a new digital tool, currently being rolled-out at scale in Dakar. We experimentally vary the extent to which agents have discretion in the valuation of the tax base: in “discretionary” areas, agents use their own judgement to estimate property values, while in “formula” areas predicted property values are computed based on observable characteristics. Using certified real estate assessments as a benchmark for the true value of the tax base, we study how rules versus discretion compare in terms of targeting, valuations, and equity, and try to characterize the types of agent biases that are at play.