1st Edition
Taxation and Inequality in Latin America New Perspectives on Political Economy and Tax Regimes
Taxation and Inequality in Latin America takes a heterodox political economy approach, focusing on Latin America, where current problems of taxation have existed for a century and great wealth contrasts with abject poverty. The book analyzes the relation of natural resource wealth, allocational politics and the limited role of taxation for redistribution, and progressive resource mobilization. By drawing on the political economy of tax regimes, the book considers the specific conditions of taxation in Latin America, which apply to a large part of the Global South and more than 100 countries specializing in the extraction and export of raw materials. This book will cover:
- taxation and the dominance of raw material export sectors;
- taxation and allocational politics;
- new perspectives on political economy and tax regimes.
Scholars and advanced students of political economy, political science, development studies, and fiscal sociology will find several key issues in tax research from a novel angle. The book provides an analytical orientation that relates central questions of taxation to patterns of regional political economy, thereby opening up the debate with tax scholars from other world regions of the Global South.
Table of contents
- Introduction: Reorienting the Tax Debate. Political Economy and Tax Regimes in Latin America.
- Natural Resource Wealth and Fiscal Institutions in Latin America since Independence
- Fiscal Revenues from Hydrocarbons and Minerals in Latin America: Challenges in an Era of Unprecedented Decarbonization and Growing Digitalization
- The Political Economy of Mobilizing Tax Resources in Bolivia
- Tax Culture: A conceptual proposal and empirical approach to the economic elite in Chile
- Tax Evasion and Capital Flight in Resource-Rich Latin America: What we can learn from Argentina
- The Political Economy of Failed Progressive Fiscal Reforms in Latin America
- Redistributive Threats, Development Models and Taxation in Latin America
- A Close Relationship with the Economic Elite: The Historical Roots of the Poor Mexican Tax State
- Business Coordination and Regressive Taxation in Latin America
- Ground rent, capital accumulation and the limits of taxation in resource-rich countries. The case of Argentina (1993-2020)
- Tax Regime and Exchange Rates in Uruguay. Instruments of appropriation of Agrarian Ground Rent
- Raw materials, tax reforms and sustainable development: Lessons from Latin America
- Contours of Rent-Based Societies: Concluding Remarks and New Perspectives on Political Economy and Taxation
Philip Fehling & Hans-Jürgen Burchardt
Part I Taxation and the Dominance of Raw Material Export Sectors
Luis Bértola & Cecilia Lara & Camilo Martínez
Juan Pablo Jiménez & Andrea Podestá
Verónica Paz Arauco & Wilson Jiménez Pozo
Jorge Atria
Verónica Grondona
Part II Taxation and Allocational Politics
Rafael Domínguez Martín
Gabriel Ondetti
Mónica Unda-Gutiérrez
Néstor Castañeda
Gastón Caligaris
Gabriel Oyhantçabal Benelli
Part III New Perspectives on Political Economy and Tax Regimes
Hans-Jürgen Burchardt
Philip Fehling
Biography
Philip Fehling is Scientific Coordinator of the Center for Advanced Latin American Studies (CALAS) at the University of Kassel, Germany.
Hans-Jürgen Burchardt is Professor of International Relations, University of Kassel, Germany.
José Antonio Ocampo, Minister of Finance and Public Credit of Colombia, former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean:
Tax reform is one of the most pressing issues in contemporary Latin America, a region historically plagued by excessive inequality, high dependence on natural resource exploitation and unacceptable levels of tax evasion. This edited volume provides an excellent examination of the implications of fiscal policy on the raw material sector and the way to design adequate tax policies to manage it.
Claudia Sanhueza Riveros, Undersecretary of Finance in the Chilean Ministry of Finance:
Tax systems should reflect social preferences for redistribution, and while the vast majority of people in Latin America believe that inequalities are unfair, our tax systems and social services do not do enough to address these social and economic inequalities. This book offers a vision from political economy to analyze the relationship between natural resource wealth, allocational politics, and the limited role of tax regimes for redistribution and progressive resource mobilization. A piece of knowledge that will help to understand the current status quo and identify tools to move forward.
