This article provides evidence from a fragile state that citizens demand more of a voice in the government when it tries to tax them. I examine a field experiment randomizing property tax collection across 356 neighborhoods of a large Congolese city. The tax campaign was the first time most citizens had been registered by the state or asked to pay formal taxes. It raised property tax compliance from 0.1% in control to 11.6% in treatment. It also increased political participation by about 5 percentage points (31%): citizens in taxed neighborhoods were more likely to attend town hall meetings hosted by the government or submit evaluations of its performance. To participate in these ways, the average citizen incurred costs equal to their daily household income, and treated citizens spent 43% more than control. Treated citizens also positively updated about the provincial government, perceiving more revenue, less leakage, and a greater responsibility to provide public goods. The results suggest that broadening the tax base has a “participation dividend,” a key idea in historical accounts of the emergence of inclusive governance in early modern Europe and a common justification for donor support of tax programs in weak states.

中文翻译：

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税收参与红利：刚果人民在尝试对国家征税时如何与国家更多地互动*

本文提供了来自一个脆弱国家的证据，即当公民试图征税时，他们要求政府更多的发言权。我研究了一个实地实验，该实验在刚果大城市的356个社区中随机分配了财产税。这项税收运动是大多数公民第一次由国家注册或要求缴纳正式税款。它将财产税的遵守率从控制中的0.1％提高到处理中的11.6％。它还使政治参与度提高了约5个百分点（31％）：受税社区的公民更有可能参加政府主办的市政厅会议或对其绩效进行评估。为了以这种方式参与，普通公民的花费等于其每日家庭收入，而接受治疗的公民的支出比对照多了43％。受到待遇的公民还积极了解了省政府的最新信息，认为收入增加了，泄漏减少了，提供公共物品的责任更大了。结果表明，扩大税收基础具有“参与红利”，这是现代早期欧洲包容性治理出现的历史记载中的一个关键思想，也是弱国中捐助者支持税收计划的普遍理由。