Professor Riël Franzsen
The African Tax Institute (ATI) has come to be widely recognised as a leading research and educational institution in the field of taxation on the African continent. Under the leadership of Professor Riël Franzsen, who also holds the South African Research Chair in Tax Policy and Governance, the focus of the ATI is on research and postgraduate education. The multidisciplinary MPhil: Taxation degree has attracted students from the public sector of several African countries, with more than 50 graduates to date. The PhD programme in Tax Policy has also attracted African scholars as well as scholars from South America and Europe.
Tax policy and administration are critical at both national and sub-national levels. Rapid urbanisation presents researchers with new opportunities and challenges, such as how to address informality in urban areas, the role of cities as drivers of economic transformation, and innovative ways to provide adequate and predictable finance options for metropolitan and city governments without losing sight of the needs of rural communities. In this context Professor Franzsen’s expertise in property tax and local government finance has been used in developing and transitional countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Europe, where he has been providing policy advice on behalf of international agencies including the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
The ATI has had a long-term association with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy (United States) in the area of land and property taxation, where research undertaken as part of a joint venture is making a significant contribution to strengthening knowledge and providing policy options on property tax issues throughout Africa. More than 30 working papers and a number of journal articles have been published to date, and a scholarly book on property taxation in Africa will be published in 2016 or early in 2017.
The ATI’s collaborative comparative research also extends beyond the African continent. Working closely with a team of international collaborators, the Institute focuses on tax policies in other developing and transitional countries. Research projects on property markets and taxation in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as in Central Asia, are under way and outcomes of these projects will benefit policy advisors and public officials, scholars, international funding and donor agencies, valuation agencies, and prospective investors.
In collaboration with Georgia State University (United States) and the City University of Hong Kong (China), the ATI participates in a research partnership focused on city finances in post-depression conditions. Further, in partnership with the Vienna University of Economics and Business in Austria, the ATI is researching good tax governance in Africa as one of the important ways to stem the illicit financial flows from the African continent.
