Does Collecting Taxes Erode the Accountability of Informal Leaders? Evidence from the DRC

This paper explores how collecting taxes for the formal state impacts the accountability of city chiefs in Kananga, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). City chiefs are informal leaders selected by local notables. They are in charge of dispute resolution, local public goods provision, and the targeting of development programmes. We exploit random variation in whether city chiefs or state agents were responsible for property tax collection in 2018 in the city of Kananga.