EMPIRICS OF CROSS-COUNTRY TAX-REVENUE COMPARISONS

This paper provides a crosscountry comparison of various aspects of su mmary tax revenue data in a broad sample of developed and developing c ountries and over a recent period of sufficient length to highlight im portant comparative country revenue developments quantitatively and as sess their significance. A novel investigation of the paper relates to the statistical convergence or divergence of country tax revenue/GDP ratios. For the entire sample of countries, it is found that both the income and domestic consumption tax revenue ratios showed statisticall y significant signs of divergence over the sample period; on a regiona l basis, however, the former ratio tended to converge, while the rever se held for the latter ratio. The trade tax revenue ratio showed stron g signs of convergence for most country groups, and convergence in all tax ratios were detected among the newly industrialized economies. Co pyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd