aaInnovation and efficiency in local tax administration: evidence from Brazil

Innovación y eficiencia en la administración tributaria local: evidencias de Brasil

This article examines how Brazilian municipalities enhance their fiscal capacity through administrative and technological innovations in the administration of property, service, and property transfer taxes. The study adopts a mixed-methods approach, integrating three-stage Data Envelopment Analysis and the Malmquist Productivity Index with Qualitative Comparative Analysis to adress efficiency levels and identify configurations of practices associated with high performance. The results indicate that there is no single dominant model for successful tax collection, and different combinations of administrative, technological, and regulatory instruments can generate efficiency gains, depending on the institutional context and the trajectory of each municipality. The findings advance theory on fiscal capacity and dynamic capabilities by showing that efficiency emerges from complementary or substitutive practices. They also highlight the value of combining symmetric and asymmetric approaches to capture causal complexity. Finally, the study offers a political contribution, emphasizing the importance of strengthening data infrastructures before deploying context-sensitive instruments to enhance revenue mobilization and fiscal autonomy.

Keywords:
municipal tax administration; tax collection; innovation; fiscal capacity; dynamic capabilities