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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 Twitter feed @STICERD_LSE for updates.

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

Can the provision of public goods strengthen fiscal capacity and foster tax compliance in developing countries? We study this question using a large-scale randomized infrastructure investment in Mexico City and administrative property tax data. Despite substantial improvements in local amenities, property values, and economic conditions, we find no evidence that infrastructure investments increased tax compliance---even when the tax-benefit link was made salient. These null results hold across different measures, subgroups, and empirical strategies, and we can rule out even small causal effects. By precisely estimating the limits of reciprocity-based compliance, our findings refine the fiscal contract theory and challenge its applicability beyond narrow elites.