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Many of our seminars and public events this year will continue as in person or as hybrid (online and in person) events.

Please check our website listings and social media feeds @STICERD_LSE at X and @LSE-STICERD-CASE at Bluesky for updates.

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Unless otherwise specified, in-person seminars are open to the public. Please ensure you have informed the event contact as early as possible.

Those unable to join the seminars in-person are welcome to participate via zoom if the event is hybrid.

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About this event

Cities in developing countries face growing demand for public services but raise too little tax revenue to fund them. Can local governments harness synergies between the two? We partner with The Gambia?s largest urban municipality to implement six randomized interventions targeting property taxation and trash collection, a service households can access by paying a user fee. At baseline, only 34% of households pay property taxes, while public trucks collect just 30% of waste. We develop a model of households? joint decisions to pay property taxes and service fees to guide our analysis. Strong enforcement through court summons sharply increases tax compliance, while comprehensive enforcement using GIS technology has smaller but meaningful effects. A tax cut has no effect. Improving access to trash collection and providing information about the tax-service link do not increase compliance. By contrast, a reciprocity intervention that reduces user fees conditional on tax payment raises compliance by a similar magnitude to comprehensive enforcement. Tying user fees to tax payments is thus a promising way to sustain a virtuous cycle.