Policy response to economic shocks

Liberia is one of the most forested countries in West Africa, with more than two thirds of its land surface covered by forest. The National Forest Inventory, conducted by the Liberia Forestry Development Authority in 2018 and 2019, estimates the forest cover in Liberia to be 6.69 million hectares which is approximately 69 percent of the total landmass. Liberia’s formal (measured) forest contribution to the national economy runs between nine and 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Forestry is the fourth largest contributor to economy, after services, agriculture and fisheries, and mining and panning. According to the 2020 Forest Resources Assessment produced by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), as of 2015, around 39,880 full time equivalent workers (of which about 35 percent women) were formally employed by the sector.2 However, the formal sector is just a small part of the story. Clearly, forest-related products and environmental services make significant contributions to the subsistence, incomes, employment and coping needs of poor rural households (HHs). Yet, in national income accounting, these contributions are often ignored, or are only partially measured.

This paper analyses the impact of terrorism on tax enforcement effectiveness by focusing on the case of the Basque Country and Navarre. The reduced-form model shows that terrorism negatively affects tax enforcement set by the regional administration and, consequently, the way it is perceived by residents in this area. These results are tested by using Spanish surveys and other data sources, finding evidence of the negative impact of terrorism on tax enforcement as it is perceived by residents in the Basque Country and Navarre. In particular, this effect is stronger for entrepreneurs and
liberal professionals. Instead, no significant impact for individuals resident in the rest of Spain is found.