Speaker：Shafik Hebous, Deputy Director, Fiscal Affairs Department, International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Host：Lu Xiaodong, Professor, Lingnan College

Time and Date：14:30, May 15, 2026 (Friday)

Venue：W.T.Chan Auditorium, Lingnan Hall

Language：English

Abstract：

Mobile money has become a central digital alternative to traditional banking in developing countries, yet several African governments have introduced taxes on mobile money transactions. We develop a model that characterizes how such taxes affect payment choices and generate excess burden. The model predicts that taxation reduces mobile money use, with elasticities shaped by access to substitutes and transaction costs: banked users substitute into formal alternatives, while unbanked users face higher effective costs, making the tax regressive. Taxation also induces substitution into cash, raising informality. We empirically test these predictions using cross-country survey data and novel transaction-level data from Cameroon, the Central African Republic, and Mali. Results show sharp declines in mobile money usage, with stronger responses among the banked. Unbanked and rural users bear a disproportionate burden. We use the empirical estimates to gauge the excess burden of the tax, which we quantify at 35% of revenue—highlighting its significant efficiency cost alongside its regressive impact.

Profile:

Shafik Hebous currently serves as Deputy Director of the Fiscal Affairs Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He has provided extensive capacity development and policy advisory support to member countries across Asia, Africa, and Europe. His research primarily focuses on public finance, including topics such as the taxation of multinational corporations, the impact of emerging technologies on tax systems, value-added tax (VAT), and fiscal multipliers. He has published widely in the field of public finance, with articles appearing in numerous peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Monetary Economics, the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, and the Journal of Public Economics. He has held academic positions as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Oslo and an Assistant Professor at Goethe University Frankfurt, and has conducted research as a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation, among other institutions.