Abel Gwaindepi

Primary research areas

Abel Gwaindepi is primarily interested in the political economy of development, broadly defined with respect to low-income countries.  So far, he has focused on and published work on the state´s role, using taxation, expenditure, and public debt as main themes to interrogate the role and capacity of states. Abel is also interested in state capacity as it relates to other areas of public policy and reforms, such as on land and informal sectors. His focus is on emerging market economies, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on country cases and cross-country comparative work within Africa, but at times his comparative work also covers other regions such as Latin America. With experience in studying economic history, Abel uses long-term, historical and contemporary perspectives on these themes in an interdisciplinary way that employs approaches from development economics, economic history, and political economy.

Current research

Domestic revenue mobilization in the context of high informality

Abel is currently working on a project on taxation and development. To meet the sustainable development goals (SDGs), limited resources are a major constraint in many low-income countries. Abel is interested in the challenges and opportunities that low-income countries have regarding domestic resource mobilization. Specifically, this project is anchored on the recent debates that portray the informal sectors as undertaxed sectors in the face of national and subnational revenue deficiencies. This work tries to shed light on central and local government revenue mobilization with country cases and cross-country analysis. This is done by analyzing formal and informal revenue generation. Research on national taxation policies and strategies is critical in unpacking what carries more weight in different contexts on domestic resource mobilization challenges such as tax evasion by big firms (or wealthy individuals), corruption or whether revenue deficiencies emanate from a failure to tax the informal sectors. 

Land reform, tenure security, and poverty

Abel has empirical, theoretical, and personal interests in land and agricultural transformation. He is working on few small projects exploring pathways to development and poverty reduction through agriculture, a major industry in most low-income countries.  The role of agriculture in structural transformation remains contested, especially on whether it will, like it did in the industrialized nations, provide a mechanism for industrial growth. Abel is currently working on land tenure security and its linkages to sustainable farming practices, productivity, and agriculture value chains.