Does E-Government Improve Government Capacity? : Evidence from Tax Administration and Public Procurement
Using a cross-country data set on e-government systems, this paper analyzes whether e-filing of taxes and e-procurement adoption improves the capacity of governments to raise and spend resources through the lowering of tax compliance costs, improve...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/04/26292557/e-government-improve-government-capacity-evidence-tax-administration-public-procurement http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24231 |
| Summary: | Using a cross-country data set on
e-government systems, this paper analyzes whether e-filing
of taxes and e-procurement adoption improves the capacity of
governments to raise and spend resources through the
lowering of tax compliance costs, improvement of public
procurement competitiveness, and reduction of corruption.
The paper finds that information and communications
technology can help improve government capacity, but the
impact of e-government varies by type of government activity
and is stronger in more developed countries. Implementation
of e-filing systems reduces tax compliance costs as measured
by the number of tax payments, time required to prepare and
pay taxes, likelihood and frequency of firms being visited
by a tax official, perception of tax administration as an
obstacle, and incidence of bribery. The effects of
e-procurement are weaker, with the number of firms securing
or attempting to secure a government contract increasing
with e-procurement implementation only in countries with
higher levels of development and better quality
institutions. The paper finds no systematic relationship
between e-procurement and bureaucratic corruption. |
|---|