Export product diversification, poverty and tax revenue in developing countries

Abstract

The current paper has examined the effect of both export product diversification and poverty on non-resource tax revenue in developing countries. The analysis has used an unbalanced panel dataset of 111 countries over the period 1980–2014. Based on the Blundell and Bond two-step system Generalized Methods of Moments technique, the empirical analysis has shown interesting findings. Export product concentration and poverty influence negatively non-resource tax revenue over the full sample, but this effect varies across countries in the sample. Furthermore, the effect of export product diversification on non-resource tax revenue performance depends on the level of poverty. It appears that export product diversification influences positively non-resource tax revenue performance in countries that experience lower poverty rates. From a policy perspective, these findings show that policies in favour of diversifying export product baskets and reducing poverty would contribute to enhancing non-resource tax revenue performance in developing countries.