This paper provides insights into how daily informal realities shape local government taxation. It draws on qualitative data collected in markets in Lawra and Yendi, two districts in Northern Ghana, in 2011 and 2012. The paper contributes to a growing literature focusing on informal institutions and practices that underpin local economies and governance systems, shedding light on the daily experiences of taxpayers in smaller towns – an area of research that has been overlooked despite these contexts being home to a large share of citizens in low-income countries. The authors argue that effective reform may be achieved by ‘working with the grain’ of local governance, designing reform in a way that is consonant with local capacity constraints and the broader social reality in which collection efforts are embedded.
Summary of ICTD Working Paper 30.
