Taxation in Latin America is largely viewed as a means of generating income to keep the government in business. In recent years, progress has been made towards increasing total revenue, but most countries in the region still lag well behind other countries with similar levels of development. More importantly, Latin America policymakers still largely ignore the potential of taxation to contribute to other important development goals. Governments have repeatedly missed the chance to influence consumption and production patterns by using taxes to effect relative price changes. More than Revenue aims to provide an up-to-date overview of the current state of taxation in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region, its main reform needs, and possible reform strategies that take into account the likely economic, institutional, and political constraints on the reform process.


Click here to access the data: https://mydata.iadb.org/d/edmz-xf2j

Panorama de las Administraciones Públicas: América Latina y el Caribe es la segunda edición de una publicación conjunta entre la Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económico (OCDE) y el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID). La publicación provee a los lectores un conjunto clave de indicadores diseñados para informar el diseño de políticas y establecer marcos de referencia para intervenciones específicas. Este conjunto de datos especializados abarca una serie de indicadores en las áreas de finanzas públicas y empleo público.

The database allows estimating structural fiscal balances for 20 countries in the region under different assumptions regarding the output gap and commodity structural prices. It is a unique database of its kind since: 1) It takes into consideration the distinct responsiveness of different types of revenues to changes in the output gap: In order to adjust for the impact of the business cycle on revenues, we calculate individual elasticities for each source of revenue (i.e. direct taxes, indirect taxes, revenues from non-renewable resources, etc.). Since the different types of revenues in the region have different sensitivities to changes in the output gap, this disaggregated approach allows for a more fine-tuned adjustment. 2) It includes estimations of SFBs based on output gaps’ projections available in “real time”. In addition to giving estimations of the actual SFBs, we provide with estimations of the SFBs that would have resulted should the projections on output gaps available to policymakers at the time of designing fiscal policy (data in “real time”) have been correct. This is in contrast to much of the existing work on structural fiscal balances that makes only an “ex post” analysis using actual and revised information on the output gaps. 3) It allows assessing the response of fiscal policy to the business cycle. We provide with measures of the fiscal impulse, assessing not only the actual but also the intentional fiscal stance, as well as the degree of procyclicality of fiscal policy.

Click here to access the data: https://mydata.iadb.org/idb/dataset/3itg-avtz

This database is an ongoing effort to update official fiscal data by the Bank and the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations, and with the collaboration of OECD and ECLAC. The Equivalent Fiscal Pressure indicator makes use of a methodology that better reflects the particularities of the mobilization of fiscal resources in the region, and consists of three elements: 1) Traditional tax collection, which includes all taxes and fees levied at all levels of government; 2) Compulsory social security contributions, whether public or private, mostly to pension and health systems; and 3) Non-tax revenues derived from the exploitation of natural resources, whether renewable or not; i.e., fees, royalties, dividends paid and net profits from public enterprises. The information is presented broken down by type of tax at every level of government. The series are adjusted with updated GDP values for each country and information that becomes available for municipalities and social security, which tend to have a longer lag period compared to other tax statistics.

Click here to access the data: https://mydata.iadb.org/d/wjva-jgbh

The database allows estimating structural fiscal balances for 20 countries in the region under different assumptions regarding the output gap and commodity structural prices. It is a unique database of its kind since: 1) It takes into consideration the distinct responsiveness of different types of revenues to changes in the output gap: In order to adjust for the impact of the business cycle on revenues, we calculate individual elasticities for each source of revenue (i.e. direct taxes, indirect taxes, revenues from non-renewable resources, etc.). Since the different types of revenues in the region have different sensitivities to changes in the output gap, this disaggregated approach allows for a more fine-tuned adjustment. 2) It includes estimations of SFBs based on output gaps’ projections available in “real time”. In addition to giving estimations of the actual SFBs, we provide with estimations of the SFBs that would have resulted should the projections on output gaps available to policymakers at the time of designing fiscal policy (data in “real time”) have been correct. This is in contrast to much of the existing work on structural fiscal balances that makes only an “ex post” analysis using actual and revised information on the output gaps. 3) It allows assessing the response of fiscal policy to the business cycle. We provide with measures of the fiscal impulse, assessing not only the actual but also the intentional fiscal stance, as well as the degree of procyclicality of fiscal policy.

Click here to access the data: https://mydata.iadb.org/idb/dataset/3itg-avtz

The database allows estimating structural fiscal balances for 20 countries in the region under different assumptions regarding the output gap and commodity structural prices. It is a unique database of its kind since: 1) It takes into consideration the distinct responsiveness of different types of revenues to changes in the output gap: In order to adjust for the impact of the business cycle on revenues, we calculate individual elasticities for each source of revenue (i.e. direct taxes, indirect taxes, revenues from non-renewable resources, etc.). Since the different types of revenues in the region have different sensitivities to changes in the output gap, this disaggregated approach allows for a more fine-tuned adjustment. 2) It includes estimations of SFBs based on output gaps’ projections available in “real time”. In addition to giving estimations of the actual SFBs, we provide with estimations of the SFBs that would have resulted should the projections on output gaps available to policymakers at the time of designing fiscal policy (data in “real time”) have been correct. This is in contrast to much of the existing work on structural fiscal balances that makes only an “ex post” analysis using actual and revised information on the output gaps. 3) It allows assessing the response of fiscal policy to the business cycle. We provide with measures of the fiscal impulse, assessing not only the actual but also the intentional fiscal stance, as well as the degree of procyclicality of fiscal policy.

Click here to access the data: https://mydata.iadb.org/idb/dataset/3itg-avtz

The database allows estimating structural fiscal balances for 20 countries in the region under different assumptions regarding the output gap and commodity structural prices. It is a unique database of its kind since: 1) It takes into consideration the distinct responsiveness of different types of revenues to changes in the output gap: In order to adjust for the impact of the business cycle on revenues, we calculate individual elasticities for each source of revenue (i.e. direct taxes, indirect taxes, revenues from non-renewable resources, etc.). Since the different types of revenues in the region have different sensitivities to changes in the output gap, this disaggregated approach allows for a more fine-tuned adjustment. 2) It includes estimations of SFBs based on output gaps’ projections available in “real time”. In addition to giving estimations of the actual SFBs, we provide with estimations of the SFBs that would have resulted should the projections on output gaps available to policymakers at the time of designing fiscal policy (data in “real time”) have been correct. This is in contrast to much of the existing work on structural fiscal balances that makes only an “ex post” analysis using actual and revised information on the output gaps. 3) It allows assessing the response of fiscal policy to the business cycle. We provide with measures of the fiscal impulse, assessing not only the actual but also the intentional fiscal stance, as well as the degree of procyclicality of fiscal policy.

Click here to access the data: https://mydata.iadb.org/idb/dataset/3itg-avtz

The database allows estimating structural fiscal balances for 20 countries in the region under different assumptions regarding the output gap and commodity structural prices. It is a unique database of its kind since: 1) It takes into consideration the distinct responsiveness of different types of revenues to changes in the output gap: In order to adjust for the impact of the business cycle on revenues, we calculate individual elasticities for each source of revenue (i.e. direct taxes, indirect taxes, revenues from non-renewable resources, etc.). Since the different types of revenues in the region have different sensitivities to changes in the output gap, this disaggregated approach allows for a more fine-tuned adjustment. 2) It includes estimations of SFBs based on output gaps’ projections available in “real time”. In addition to giving estimations of the actual SFBs, we provide with estimations of the SFBs that would have resulted should the projections on output gaps available to policymakers at the time of designing fiscal policy (data in “real time”) have been correct. This is in contrast to much of the existing work on structural fiscal balances that makes only an “ex post” analysis using actual and revised information on the output gaps. 3) It allows assessing the response of fiscal policy to the business cycle. We provide with measures of the fiscal impulse, assessing not only the actual but also the intentional fiscal stance, as well as the degree of procyclicality of fiscal policy.

Click here to access the data: https://mydata.iadb.org/idb/dataset/3itg-avtz