Fiscal legibility and state development
Theory and evidence from colonial Mexico
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6231145 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Francisco Garfias (0000-0002-0332-3716, School of Global Policy and Strategy University of California, San Diego La Jolla, San Diego California USA), Emily A Sellars (0000-0002-0388-1697, Department of Political Science Yale University New Haven Connecticut USA) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Publication date | 2024-09-07 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0092-5853 • E-ISSN: 1540-5907 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/ajps.12901 |
| OpenAlex | W4402332347 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 62 |
We examine how fiscal legibility, the ability of central authorities to observe local conditions for the purposes of taxation, shapes political centralization and state development. When rulers lack information about the periphery, they may benefit from ceding autonomy to tax‐collecting intermediaries to encourage fiscal performance. As information quality improves, rulers become better able to monitor and sanction local officials, allowing them to tighten control over taxation and establish more direct state presence. Centralization, in turn, encourages investment in improving fiscal legibility, leading to long‐term divergence in state development. We study the consequences of a technological innovation that dramatically improved the Spanish Crown's fiscal legibility in colonial Mexico: the discovery of the patio process to refine silver. We show that political centralization differentially accelerated in affected districts and that these areas subsequently saw disproportionate state investment in informational capacity, altering the trajectory of state development
Advertising · Archaeology · Business · Colonialism · Economics · Legibility · Political economy · Political science · State (computer science · State formation · Computer Science · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law · Politics and Society in Latin America
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| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 6 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |