Uganda: Research Reports

The documents below are selected, commented and annotated by the U4 administration. If you come across some interesting new research document or report, please let us know!

Are Corruption and Taxation Really Harmful to Growth? Firm Level Evidence

Raymond Fisman and Jakob Svensson study the relationship between bribery payments, taxes and firm growth over the period 1995-97 in Ugandan firms. The paper states that both the rate of taxation and bribery are negatively correlated with firm growth. Bribery has much greater negative impact on growth, while the effect of taxation is considerably reduced. This provides some validation for firm-level theories of corruption which posit that corruption retards the development process to an even greater extent than taxation. (2000)

Good governance in Africa : a case study from Uganda

This paper by Langseth Petter, Kato Damian, Kisubi Muhammad and Pope Jeremy examines the broader issue of governance that includes capacity building, integrity, and the focus on public sector service delivery and results. This holistic approach is being applied to Uganda. The paper is comprised of three sections, demonstrating the creative partnership that can and should be developed between a government, civil society, and a development agency. The sections focus on: a) capacity building with result orientation and integrity; b) containing corruption and building integrity; and c) enhancing and sustaining a result orientation within the public service. (1997)

How Research Can Assist Policy: The Case of Economic Reforms in Uganda

This article by John Mackinnon and Ritva Reinikka states that research has had a powerful impact on policy in Uganda, affecting the climate of opinion, improving the quality of the policy debate, and helping focus public policy and intervention on poverty reduction. Uganda's successful use of knowledge and research to help set public policy priorities demonstrates that even a poor postconflict country can, in a relatively short period of time, create an effective information base and feedback mechanisms for decisionmaking. (2002)

Local Capture and the Political Economy of School Financing

This article by Reinikka and Svensson explains leakage of public funds in education, using panel data from a study of primary schools in Uganda. The data reveal that on average, schools received only 13% of what the central government contributed to the schools’ non-wage expenditures. The bulk of the allocated spending was either used by public officials for purposes unrelated to education, or captured for private gain (leakage). (2002)

The cost of doing business

This paper, "The Cost of Doing Business: Ugandan Firms' Experiences with Corruption" by the economist Jakob Svensson (Development Research Group, The World Bank and Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University), shows that Ugandan firms typically have to pay bribes when dealing with public officials whose actions directly affect the firms' business operations. The paper exploits data from a survey of private enterprises in Uganda. It documents that the "price" for a given public service appears to depend on ability to pay, but can find no evidence that firms that pay higher bribes on average receive more beneficial government favours in return. In fact the rate of bribery is negatively correlated with firm growth. The adverse effect of bribery on firm growth is more than three times greater than that of taxation on growth. The article is previously published in the Africa Region Working Paper Series No. 5. (April 2000). (2003)

Who must pay bribes and how much? Evidence form a cross-section of firms.

This paper by Jakob Svennson exploits an unique data set on corruption containing information on estimated bribe payments of Ugandan firms. To guide the empirical analysis a simple rent-extortion model is developed. The model yields predictions on the incidence of bribery and the amount paid. (2000)