Le, Tuan M.

Person:
Le, Tuan M.

Africa Region, Pov.Reduction & Econ. Man. Dept.

Author Name Variants

Le, Tuan M., Le, Tuan Minh, Le Minh Tuan, Minh Le, Tuan

Fields of Specialization

Public finance

Departments

Africa Region, Pov.Reduction & Econ. Man. Dept.

Last updated: January 31, 2023

Biography

Tuan Minh Le is Senior Economist at the World Bank Africa Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM). Prior to joining the World Bank, he worked at the Public Finance Group, Harvard Institute for International Development, Harvard University, and was Assistant Professor of Economics at Suffolk University. He has engaged in a broad range of teaching, research, policy consulting and operations on public finance in Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa. His publication focuses on tax policy design, revenue administration, and public investment management. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Public Policy from Harvard University.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 16

Assessing Public Investment Management Functions and Institutional Arrangements for State-Owned Enterprises: A Diagnostic Framework
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-07-20) Glenday, Graham; Le, Tuan Minh; Mahdi, Shireen; Pijuan, Albert
This paper provides a diagnostic framework (DF) for helping governments conceptualize and develop desirable functions and institutional arrangements for public investments managed by state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The DF also extends its coverage to not-for-profit, quasi-independent government entities. Determining the appropriate approach to managing SOE public investments requires a measured reconciliation of multiple trade-offs. In certain cases, when SOEs make profit-seeking investments for commercial purposes, operate in competitive markets, and make investments that present no major externalities, governments should take a hands-off approach, a scenario that may include cases in which governments simply exit and leave the corporate governance in the hands of private investors. Governments should let SOEs make their own investment decisions in pursuit of business efficiency. In such instances, governments need to establish a level playing field on which SOEs can operate and compete with private actors and exercise their public interest as a shareholder. In other cases, however, governments should establish a robust system - well aligned with the national public investment management (PIM) architecture to regulate SOE investments. This alignment should occur when SOE investments extend the role of line ministries and are financed by the general government budget or involve large-scale projects, posing significant fiscal risks through implicit or explicit contingent liabilities. The PIM practiced by SOEs should also align with the national PIM system when there are potential detrimental impacts on the environment, climate, and resilience. Our DF consists of four matrices intended to be used in combination to assess the gap between a country’s current SOE PIM and international best practices. Matrix 1 sketches the guideposts to determine which stakeholders should guard SOE investments, focusing on who. Matrix 2 helps assess PIM functions, focusing on what should be done under each PIM function and by whom. Matrix 3 presents a framework and a set of measurement indicators to evaluate how governments should introduce PIM processes and systems. Matrix 4 gives some consideration to the project viability of SOEs. To effectively apply the DF, it cannot be used mechanically: it must be grounded in a good understanding of the country’s political economy and the vested incentives of all stakeholders involved in SOE PIM.
Determinants of Property Tax Revenue: Lessons from Empirical Analysis
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-09) Awasthi, Rajul; Le, Tuan Minh; You, Chenli
Many developing countries have struggled with realizing sufficient revenues from property tax. However, as developing countries experience economic growth, they are also seeing property values rising, providing a bigger tax base from which to realize revenues. Technology has made tax administration easier and more effective and developing country governments have been improving their quality of governance and considering introducing or enhancing property tax revenue collection to diversify their tax and fiscal revenues. This paper explores the determinants of property tax revenue using data from the United States, Canada, Australia, Chile, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development for 2006 to 2016, using a fixed effects model. The results show that increases in gross domestic product and population lead to increases in property tax revenue and an increase in federal transfers decreases it. The outcomes of the empirical analysis highlight the statistically significant impacts on property tax collection of a country's state of development and its demographic, fiscal, and property tax–specific characteristics. A critical question for further research is whether and how the empirical methodologies and specifications as applied to the set of developed economies would be replicated in the context of developing countries.
Assessing Domestic Revenue Mobilization: Analytical Tools and Techniques
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-10) Jensen, Leif; Le, Tuan Minh; Shukla, G.P.; Biletska, Nataliya
The main objective of this paper is to provide support for the World Bank’s task team leaders of PERs that would include a chapter on taxation. It seeks to provide broad guidance for the TTLs to: (a) Lead dialogues with client countries on the scope of the tax chapter in view of Government’s on-going and planned reforms of tax policy and/or tax administration; (b) Evaluate the magnitude of data requirements and limitations in the country-specific context; and (c) Establish an appropriate team, particularly consider selection of technical staff or consultant and discuss with the team on scope of the chapter on taxation and suitable analytical tools and techniques to be applied. The paper may also serve as a helpful input on tax components in the preparation of lending operations, in this way supplementing other diagnostic tools. To serve these objectives, the paper aims to presents an overview of major taxes and respective list of data requirements as well as possible sources; tool and techniques in assessing the efficiency, effectiveness and equity in tax policy design (at both national and sub-national levels) and tax administration. In doing so, the authors acknowledge that this is not a straightforward task. No one-size-fits-all approach would exist to covering the revenue chapter, and this is driven by the complexities on the ground in terms of (1) the existing literature, and the mismatch between rigorous application of appropriate tools and techniques on the one hand and data available on the other; (2) existence of or immediate plan for parallel studies on tax revenues (including the IMF TA on tax policy and administration being provided); (3) the country’s economic structure, including the factors such as country’s abundance of extractive resources or aid dependence; and (4) the government’s requests for further support in revenue mobilization (tax policy or administration or both). This paper consists of four parts. The first part discusses major taxes at the national or central level of government with a reference to generally accepted notion or principles of a ‘good’ tax system. Part two is focused on the major tools and techniques for analysis of the performance of a tax system and of tax expenditures. The discussion of revenue modeling covers different methods, such as GDP based, micro-simulation, national accounts/inputs-outputs tables based and regression analyses. Part three sheds light on subnational government taxation. It covers the revenue issues at both at the regional and local levels. In addition, it introduces a framework on measuring taxing powers at subnational level, with a view to ensure appropriate ground for the fiscal dialog across levels of government. Finally, part four points to potential questions to assist in assessing the strengths and weaknesses in tax administration, drawing on Jit Gill (2000) and the newly developed tax administration diagnostic tool TADAT (2016).
The Power of Public Investment Management : Transforming Resources into Assets for Growth
(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2014-09-30) Rajaram, Anand; Minh Le, Tuan; Kaiser, Kai; Kim, Jay-Hyung; Frank, Jonas
This publication consists of seven chapters: building a system for public investment management; a unified framework for public investment management; country experiences of public investment management; approaches to better project appraisal; public investment management under uncertainty; procurement and public investment management; and public investment management for public-private partnerships.
Political Economy of the Mining Sector in Ghana
(2011-07-01) Ayee, Joseph; Soreide, Tina; Shukla, G. P.; Le, Tuan Minh
With a focus on the institutional set-up and the political environment as central to understanding and rectifying the poor impact of mining on Ghana's economic development, this paper highlights the vulnerabilities in mining sector governance along the industry value chain. The authors explain why it has been difficult to implement policies that would have improved social welfare. They find that incentive problems in institutions directly or peripherally involved in mining governance are a major factor, as are an excessively centralized policy-making process, a powerful executive president, strong party loyalty, a system of political patronage, lack of transparency, and weak institutional capacity at the political and regulatory levels. The paper argues that the net impact of mining on economic development is likely to be enhanced with appropriate reforms in governance. Most importantly, there should be a greater awareness of incentive problems at the political level and their possible implications for sector performance and the economy at large. The set of checks and balances, as stipulated by the Constitution, have to be reinforced. Furthermore, capacity building at different levels and institutions is needed and should be combined with efforts to enhance incentives for institutional performance.
Political Economy of the Petroleum Sector in Nigeria
(2011-08-01) Gboyega, Alex; Soreide, Tina; Le, Tuan Minh; Shukla, G. P.
The relatively slow pace of Nigeria's development has often been attributed to the phenomenon of the resource curse whereby the nature of the state as a "rentier" dilutes accountability for development and political actors are able to manipulate institutions to sustain poor governance. The impact of the political elite's resource-control and allocation of revenues on core democratic mechanisms is central to understand the obstacles to development and governance failure. Given that problems of petroleum sector governance are extremely entrenched in Nigeria, the key question is whether and how it is possible to get out of a poor equilibrium after fifty years of oil production. This paper uses a political economy perspective to analyze the governance weaknesses along the petroleum sector value chain and attempts to establish the links between challenges in sector regulation and the following major political and economic attributes: (i) strong executive control on petroleum governance in a political environment of weak checks and balances; (ii) regulatory and operating roles bundled into one institution, thereby creating conflict of interest; and (iii) manipulation of elections and political appointments. The restoration of democratic government has helped improve transparency and management of oil revenue and reforms at the federal level and proposed reforms of the petroleum sector hold much promise. At the same time, the judiciary has started to restore confidence that it will serve as a check and balance on the executive and the electoral process. Yet, these reforms are fragile and need to be deepened and institutionalized. They must be addressed not as purely technocratic matters but as issues of political economy and vested interests that must, through regulation and reform, be aligned with the public interest and a vision of Nigerian development.
Tax Capacity and Tax Effort : Extended Cross-Country Analysis from 1994 to 2009
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-10) Moreno-Dodson, Blanca; Le, Tuan Minh; Bayraktar, Nihal
One of the important factors for economic development is the existence of an effective tax system. This paper deals with the concept and empirical estimation of countries' taxable capacity and tax effort. It employs a cross-country study from a sample of 110 developing and developed countries during 1994-2009. Taxable capacity refers to the predicted tax-to-gross domestic product ratio that can be estimated empirically, taking into account a country's specific macroeconomic, demographic, and institutional features, which all change through time. Tax effort is defined as an index of the ratio between the share of the actual tax collection in gross domestic product and taxable capacity. The use of tax effort and actual tax collection benchmarks allows the ranking of countries into four different groups: low tax collection, low tax effort; high tax collection, high tax effort; low tax collection, high tax effort; and high tax collection, low tax effort. The analysis provides broad guidance for tax reforms in countries with various levels of taxable capacity and revenue intake.
Measuring the Impact of Debt-Financed Public Investment
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-02) Cavalcanti, Carlos B.; Marrero, Gustavo A.; Le, Tuan Minh
While debt-financed productive public investment raises a country s debt ratios in the short run, it can also generate higher growth, revenues, and exports, leading over time to lower debt ratios. This paper develops a framework to assess whether countries meet the conditions for realizing the net benefits over the costs of public investment debt financing. While it is possible to achieve debt sustainability with an appropriate mix of concessional and non-concessional financing, this is a necessary but not sufficient condition. It is also important to ensure the operational viability of public investment projects by having in place adequate project management: (i) project screening and appraisal, (ii) a clear connection between capital and recurrent expenditures once the projects are launched, and (iii) safeguards for appropriate project implementation and facilities operations. To illustrate the strength of these results, the paper carries out three measurement exercises: (a) a simulation of the degree to which the ratio of optimal public investment responds to changes in key parameters related to project management in a general equilibrium model; (b) application of the public investment management (PIMa) index to benchmark a country's public investment management capacity; and (c) presentation of the results of the Investment, Savings, and Macroeconomic Vulnerabilities tool aimed at tracking country choices in public finance and the impact of public projects on private investments.
Rents to Riches? The Political Economy of Natural Resource-led Development
(World Bank, 2012) Barma, Naazneen H.; Kaiser, Kai; Le, Tuan Minh; Vinuela, Lorena
This volume emphasizes instead the notion of 'good fit,' taking the position that welfare-promoting policies, institutions, and governance must be tailored, at least in part, to a country's specific context. In this vein, the volume presents an analytical framework for assessing a country's political economy and institutional environment as it relates to natural resource management and, on that basis, it offers a substantial set of targeted prescriptions across the natural resource value chain that are technically sound and compatible with the identified underlying incentives. In other words, the objective of this book is to help development practitioners unravel the political economy dynamics surrounding natural resource management in order to complement their technically grounded engagement. To this end, the analytical approach has been two-pronged. First, case studies were conducted on the political economy of the hydrocarbon and mineral value chains in 13 countries in the Africa, East Asia and Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean regions. Second, in light of this empirical material, the book highlights the current frontier of applied political economy analysis on resource dependence. This volume synthesizes the empirical and the theoretical with an emphasis on illuminating the implications for operational engagement in resource-dependent settings.
Zambia : Rebuilding a Broken Public Investment Management System
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014) Palale, Patricia; Le, Tuan Minh; Raballand, Gael
The report follows the diagnostic methodology as outlined in Rajaram et al. The diagnostics is based on interviews, a survey questionnaire with government officials, central statistical office (CSOs), and private sector and desk review of related documents. The paper identifies the weaknesses in processes and institutions that contribute to poor outcomes of public spending. The government has been conducting a number of reforms in this field, such as overarching public financial management and procurement reforms. However, the public investment management (PIM) remains largely inefficient and certain key functions of project evaluation are missing or in rudimentary forms. To succeed, all the pieces of reforms have to be woven into a coherent framework targeting the weakest links in the PIM system. Multiple factors, including the absence of necessary institutions, unclear institutional mandates, weak capacity, lack of vertical and horizontal coordination, and misaligned incentives drive the inefficiency of PIM. This also implies that pure technical solutions do not guarantee success. As a result this paper suggests that strengthening of the challenge function of the ministry of finance in Zambia is critical for better PIM but a gradual, incentive compatible approach is probably necessary in the current context.