Anders Jensen

My research focuses on public economics and development economics. One set of projects in my work seeks to study the factors that shape the capacity to tax and the choice of tax policy over the long run of development. Ultimately, this line of work aims to shed light on how should, and can, a government go from raising 5-10 percent of GDP in taxes to around 35-40 percent, while encouraging development more broadly. My second line of work consists in working with tax authorities and other government departments in developing countries. The starting point here is the specific structure, policies and issues of a given country. Through close collaborations and the use of large micro-datasets, these projects study what governments can do, given constrained capacity to tax, to incrementally improve tax administration, tax enforcement, tax policy, and tax morale. In this line of work, I am currently collaborating with governments in Ghana, Zambia, Liberia, and Brazil.

I received my PhD in Economics from London School of Economics in 2016 and spent one year at NBER as a post-doctoral fellow before joining HKS. I am a Faculty Research Fellow at NBER, and an International Research Associate at IFS.