Trust in institutions and perceptions of the tax system among informally employed people Figure 6.5 Opinions on the degree to which the wealthy contribute enough taxes Senegal Zambia Kenya Benin Côte d'Ivoire Ethiopia Strongly Agree 25% Agree 50% Undecided[DNR] 75% Disagree 100% Strongly Disagree Note: Exact wording of the question: Do you think that particularly wealthy regions and wealthy individuals contribute their fair share of taxes, fees and other payments to the development of the country? Response options: Strongly agree, they already pay more than enough; Agree, they already pay enough; Undecided[option not read out but coded]; Disagree, they should pay more; Strongly disagree, they should pay significantly more; Don’t know[Option not read out but coded] Figure 6.6 Openness to increase contributions if money is used for health 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Strongly oppose Somewhat oppose Undecided Somewhat support Strongly support If I benefit If people poorer than me benefit Note: Exact wording of the two questions compared in the figure: If the government decided to make you pay taxes or user fees in order to increase spending on public health care benefitting you, would you support this decision or oppose it? vS. Would you pay taxes or fees if the government would use this money to provide free health services for persons poorer than you? The option»Undecided« was not read out but coded. The values represent means for all observations. appear to attach much heavier blame to the contributions of the wealthy. These results suggest that there is a widely shared agreement that the poor have to be supported, regardless of their inabil­ity to contribute. They also indicate that there is a predomi­nant expectation that if possible, everyone with the capacity to do so should contribute at least moderately to the tax effort. Also, the data suggest that there is no particular de­mand to focus much pressure on the wealthy. A willingness to contribute more is particularly high in relation to health care, which might indicate a need to find a mechanism to – de facto or de jure – earmark taxes for health spending. As Figure 6.6 shows, if money is used for health and to benefit the poor people’s openness to pay more is particularly high. 6.4 CONCLUSION At least in the short run, funding constraints will remain significant and limit the capacity of low- and middle-income countries to expand their social protection and health care systems. Such countries need to increase their domestic revenues in order to afford expansion. 55