Do tax administration reforms improve tax revenue performance in Togo? Empirical insights from experimental approaches

Abstract Tax administration reforms are often motivated by their potential to improve tax revenue mobilisation. However, their actual impacts are difficult to quantify. Using cross‐country panel data over the period 1990–2018, this paper analyses the impact of the 2012 tax administration reform on tax revenue performance in Togo. The estimation procedures that we follow are the synthetic control method (SCM) and the propensity score matching (PSM). After comparing the observed evolution of Togo's tax revenue output in the period 2013–2018 with that of synthetic Togo, our estimates show an accumulated gain in the tax‐to‐GDP ratio of a yearly average of about 2.8%. The results pass a battery of checks. Hence, the paper concludes that after almost 9 years of reform, the improvement in Togo's tax performance is remarkable. However, more tax‐related and institution‐related reforms are crucial to make Togo's tax system more buoyant and sustainably improved tax revenue mobilisation.