The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded LoGRI Associate and Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University Niccolò F. Meriggi, a Talent Programme Veni Scheme grant to support a new research initiative focused on understanding and addressing the political-institutional barriers to effective property taxation in Western Africa.
The funded project will explore how political processes constrain municipal fiscal capacity and hinder reforms in property taxation. By identifying sources of political resistance and developing context-sensitive solutions, the research aims to design politically feasible reforms that strengthen state capacity and enhance legitimacy over the long term.
Building on Meriggi’s ongoing work in Sierra Leone—including research on property tax reform in Freetown and tax compliance in Kenema City carried out in partnership with LoGRI — the grant will enable an expansion of these efforts across the West African region. The research team will collaborate closely with municipal governments to pilot approaches to credible, transparent, and systematic tax enforcement.
Commenting on the award, Niccolò stated:
“I’m thrilled to receive this support from NWO to build on the work I’ve been doing with local governments and a dedicated team of collaborators. This grant is a unique opportunity to tackle fundamental questions about how political incentives shape fiscal capacity and state-building in weak states. By linking rigorous empirical research with institutional insight, I am committed to deepening our understanding of the mechanisms behind institutional and societal development in fragile contexts. I’m grateful to NWO for supporting research that takes this complexity seriously and seeks to inform policy reforms that are locally grounded, self-sustaining, and durable.”
This initiative not only contributes to academic understanding of the political economy of taxation in developing contexts, but also seeks to inform public sector reform through evidence-based, locally grounded policy design. The research will be based at the Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford, and Wageningen University.
Learn more about Meriggi’s work in Sierra Leone:
- LoGRI-CSAE Working Paper ‘Participation, Legitimacy and Fiscal Capacity in Weak States: Evidence from Participatory Budgeting’
- VoxDev article ‘Can participatory budgeting build government legitimacy and increase tax revenues in weak states?’
A version of this article was first posted here.