Studying fiscal regimes

Monson, Andrew; Scheidel, Walter

doi:10.1017/cbo9781316105436.001

Cited by 34 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…The reasoning behind this approach is to contextualize the acquisition of chert and production of lithic tools on the background of ancient state economies, political economy, and specialized production based on modern theoretical approaches within Middle-Range-Theory and archaeological political economy [ 8 , 9 , 10 ]. These offer useful avenues of socio-economic contextualization of craft production, acquisition of raw materials, human resources as well as the financing of mining activities and the subsequent distribution of the products.…”

Section: Methods Aims and Objectives Of Investigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wadi el-Sheikh: A new archaeological investigation of ancient Egyptian chert mines

2017

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This article provides an overview of the first results from archaeological investigations at Wadi el-Sheikh in Egypt by the University of Vienna Middle Egypt Project. Chert was an important raw material used to produce tools, implements and jewelry in ancient times. Wadi el-Sheikh was exploited over thousands of years as it was probably the most important source of chert in Pharaonic civilization. The results of our new investigations that involved surveys and test excavations indicate the presence of large scale mining activities in the first half of the 3rd Millennium B.C.E. which allow for detailed insights into the amount of raw material extracted, the mining methods used and the lithic products manufactured in this area. These aspects are contextualized on the background of ancient Egyptian state-organized resource acquisition strategies and economy.

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Section: Methods Aims and Objectives Of Investigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wadi el-Sheikh: A new archaeological investigation of ancient Egyptian chert mines

2017

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“…For one, ‘fiscal constitution’ was defined by Brennan and Buchanan (1980) as ‘a prevailing type of fiscal system in a specific country at a given moment in history’ (in Bonney, 1999: 5) and later by Levi (1988: 49) as ‘a polity's rules and procedures for extracting and collecting revenue’. Fiscal constitution is arguably comparable to ‘fiscal regime’ (Monson and Scheidel, 2015: 7) as well as ‘fiscal systems’, most prominently used by Bonney (1999) but also by Schumpeter (1918 [1954]). All these terms allow us to study premodern fiscality – that is before actual states could be observed – as well as conduct analyses that cut across time and space because the state institutions are not included in concept definitions.…”

Section: Reviewing the Meaning Of The Fiscal State Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptualizing the fiscal state: implications for sub-Saharan Africa

Jeppesen

Bak

Kjær

2023

Journal of Institutional Economics

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This paper contributes to the debate on domestic revenue mobilization and state-building in the Global South by exploring the concept of fiscal states and the common assumption that such states are present in sub-Saharan Africa. We systematically review the diverse understandings of the fiscal state across relevant literatures to revisit its conceptualization. On that basis, we define the fiscal state as a state whose public revenue base is dominated by tax revenue and loans, and where the relationship between taxation and external and domestic borrowing is balanced and thereby sustainable and characterized by interdependence. We distinguish the fiscal state conceptually from the tax, debt, and rentier states and present a typology of these ideal state types, discussing illustrative empirical examples of different states in sub-Saharan Africa. These illustrate that not all sub-Saharan states can be categorized as fiscal states. This is important because when African states are regarded as fiscal states, assumptions are made about their economic structures; yet, to the extent that these are absent, fiscal policy reforms are unlikely to carry long-term positive effects.

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“…This typically meant that the central state recorded them inaccurately or controlled them incompletely. In early modern China, for instance, many taxes were collected at the local level, but local administrators falsified fiscal reports to the centre, creating large and unobservable errors in central fiscal capacity (Lewis, 2015, 293–4). In France in 1609, only 20 per cent of direct taxes collected by the central state were transported to Paris; the other 80 per cent were controlled by local elites (Hoffman, 1994, 230–1).…”

Section: A Flawed Measurementioning

confidence: 99%

State Capacity and Economic Growth: Cautionary Tales From History

Ogilvie¹

2022

NIER

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This paper uses economic history to probe the relationship between state capacity and economic growth during the Great and Little Divergences (c.1500–c.1850). It identifies flaws in the dominant measure of state capacity, fiscal capacity, and advocates instead analysing state expenditures. It investigates five key activities on which states historically spent resources: waging war; providing law and administration; building infrastructure; pursuing industrial policy; and fostering a national culture. The lesson of history, it concludes, is not to build a capacious state. Rather, we need a state that uses its capacity to help (or at least not hinder) market activity.

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Studying fiscal regimes

Cited by 34 publications

References 40 publications

Wadi el-Sheikh: A new archaeological investigation of ancient Egyptian chert mines

Wadi el-Sheikh: A new archaeological investigation of ancient Egyptian chert mines

Conceptualizing the fiscal state: implications for sub-Saharan Africa

State Capacity and Economic Growth: Cautionary Tales From History

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