What drives tax morale in selected North African economies? Empirical evidence from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia using simulated ARDL and GMM quantile regressions

Abstract

This study attempts to analyze the driving factors of tax morale in selected North African countries over the period 1984-2022. For this purpose, we use simulated ARDL and Frequency Domain Causality for time-series analysis and GMM-QR for dynamic panel analysis. According to long-run empirical estimations, educational growth positively contributes to enhancing tax morals in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, whereas GDP and corruption contribute negatively. However, this relationship fluctuates in the short term. In addition, all independent variables positively and significantly maintain causality for tax morals. Furthermore, the dynamic estimation confirms the above relationship in the long-run in the panel. Although education and GDP maintained the same relationship in the GMM-QR estimation, corruption levels remained insignificant during the quantile period. Considering the pioneering study of the area, this study suggests some key factors that should be given more attention for enhancing tax morals in the region and ultimately improving the tax-to-GDP ratio.