The Corporate Tax Burden in Ethiopia: Evidence from Anonymised Tax Returns

effective tax rates; Ethiopia; corporate taxation; administrative data.This paper computes and analyses the tax burden on Ethiopian corporations, measured by the average effective tax rate (ETR) on their profit. Our strongest result regards the relation between tax burdens and firm size. We find a statistically significant U-shaped relation between ETR and size. While small firms face the highest tax burden, the largest firms still pay more than middle-sized firms. It is this latter group that benefits from lower tax burdens. These results suggest that both small and large firms face constraints in minimising their taxes, but these constraints are fundamentally different. While small firms do not have the capacity and resources to fully exploit the tax system, large firms are highly visible and under greater scrutiny by the tax authority. This speculative interpretation is supported by the available data on firms’ deductions. We also find that exporting firms, firms that pay their taxes in regional offices as opposed to Addis Ababa, and firms with higher leverage have lower tax burdens.DfID, NORAD

Needle-stick and Sharps Injuries Among Health Care Workers in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Background: Needle-stick and Sharps injuries to health care workers constitute a major public health concern and the problem is more severe in low income setting. This study examines the magnitude of needle-sticks and sharps injuries and its associated factors among health care workers in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia.Methods: Institution based cross sectional study was conducted in February 2016. Health care workers (n=760) of various occupations were the study population. A cluster sampling technique was used. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data was entered into EPI info version 3.5.4 and exported into SPSS version 20.0 for analysis. Binary logistic regression model is used to identify factors associated with the outcome variable, and finally multivariate logistic regression model is used to identify independent predictors of the outcome, with statistical significance set at p<0.050 (95% confidence interval (CI)).Results: Three hundred and forty three (55.1%) health care workers were injured by needle-stick and sharps in the past one year. Occupation (AOR: 3.07; 95%CI: 1.80-5.25), and inconsistent wearing of gloves (AOR: 2.87; 95%CI: 2.00-4.12) were independent predictors of needle-stick and sharps injuries.Conclusion: The level of needle-stick and sharps injuries was high. All relevant stake holders in health need to provide training on prevention of needle-stick and sharps injuries to health care workers and ensure consistent wearing of gloves over their whole professional career. Keywords: Health care workers, Needle-stick and sharps injuries, Ethiopia

Needle-stick and Sharps Injuries Among Health Care Workers in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Background: Needle-stick and Sharps injuries to health care workers constitute a major public health concern and the problem is more severe in low income setting. This study examines the magnitude of needle-sticks and sharps injuries and its associated factors among health care workers in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia.Methods: Institution based cross sectional study was conducted in February 2016. Health care workers (n=760) of various occupations were the study population. A cluster sampling technique was used. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data was entered into EPI info version 3.5.4 and exported into SPSS version 20.0 for analysis. Binary logistic regression model is used to identify factors associated with the outcome variable, and finally multivariate logistic regression model is used to identify independent predictors of the outcome, with statistical significance set at p<0.050 (95% confidence interval (CI)).Results: Three hundred and forty three (55.1%) health care workers were injured by needle-stick and sharps in the past one year. Occupation (AOR: 3.07; 95%CI: 1.80-5.25), and inconsistent wearing of gloves (AOR: 2.87; 95%CI: 2.00-4.12) were independent predictors of needle-stick and sharps injuries.Conclusion: The level of needle-stick and sharps injuries was high. All relevant stake holders in health need to provide training on prevention of needle-stick and sharps injuries to health care workers and ensure consistent wearing of gloves over their whole professional career. Keywords: Health care workers, Needle-stick and sharps injuries, Ethiopia

Fading choice: transport costs and variety in consumer goods

We examine the spatial variation in variety of manufactured consumer goods to study how choice fades across space. We use data on 132 consumer goods and over 800 brands available from a purpose‐designed survey of fixed shops and periodic market stalls in towns and villages in Ethiopia. We find that local consumer choice fades, with fewer varieties in remoter villages. On average, these villages have approximately half the number of available items compared to their nearest market town. A fall in travel time of a half‐hour is associated with 4 extra goods and 9 brands. Variety also increases with inequality and market size. Furthermore, we estimate a model of heterogeneous consumers with a preference for variety and monopolistically competitive traders to disentangle the role of transport costs from the taste for variety, and to assess the consequences for prices. Our model estimates suggest that local consumer prices contain a markup of 8% above source town prices and transport costs. We demonstrate the significant costs to consumers from both low variety and high trade costs. Ignoring such costs means that poverty is underestimated in remote places. In turn, when infrastructure investments raise variety, the likely fall in poverty will be underestimated too

Can ICTs Increase Tax? Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia

The widespread introduction of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and digitalised data management systems is one of the most important developments among African tax administrations in recent years. However, very little evidence is available on their effectiveness in practice, and how taxpayers respond to these changes. This paper starts filling this gap by reporting three sets of results from Ethiopia.DFIDBill and Melinda Gates Foundatio

Les Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication (TIC) peuvent-elles augmenter les taxes? Résultats expérimentaux en Ethiopie

This ICTD Research in Brief is a two-page summary of ICTD Working Paper 82 by Giulia Mascagni, Andualem T. Mengistu, and Firew B. Woldeyes. This series is aimed at policy makers, tax administrators, fellow researchers and anyone else who is big on interest and short on time. African tax administrations have experienced rapid modernisation in the past two decades. The digitalisation of tax records and widespread adoption of ICTs have been key features of this process. However, there is still very little evidence on the effectiveness of ICTs and digitised data on tax collection and the functioning of tax administration more broadly. In principle, ICTs can have a great impact in making the tax administration more efficient. This brief summarises the findings from the working paper that asks the empirical question of whether and to which extent these benefits can materialise in practice, in presence of severe capacity constraints within the tax administration.Résumé du document de travail 82 de Giulia Mascagni, Andualem T. Mengistu, et Firew B. Woldeyes. Les administrations fiscales africaines ont connu une rapide modernisation au cours des deux dernières décennies. La numérisation des dossiers fiscaux et l’adoption généralisée des TIC ont été des éléments majeurs de ce processus. Cependant, il y a encore très peu de preuves de l’efficacité des TIC et des données numérisées sur le recouvrement des impôts et, plus généralement, sur le fonctionnement de l’administration fiscale. En théorie, les TIC peuvent avoir un impact important sur l’augmentation de l’efficacité de l’administration fiscale et sur l’évolution des emplois de tâches mécaniques – comme la saisie des données – vers des tâches plus élaborées – comme les audits et l’analyse de données. En outre, les données numérisées peuvent rendre la mise en œuvre moins coûteuse et plus efficace, en élargissant par exemple l’utilisation des informations issues de sources tierces et par le recoupement systématique des informations des contribuables. Cet article cherche à établir de manière empirique si, et dans quelle mesure, ces avantages peuvent se matérialiser dans la pratique, en présence d’importantes contraintes de capacité au sein de l’administration fiscale