data set is georeferenced, covering 7,137 towns and villages in 31 countries in SSA, 62 percent of which are rural (BenYishay et al., 2017).

In this paper, we measure tax compliance using a tax morale index defined as an individual’s expressed attitude toward the obligation to pay taxes to the state. Within the survey, respondents are asked a set of questions regarding the responsibilities of citizens in paying taxes. We, therefore, develop an index of tax morale based on the opinions expressed by respondents on the responsibilities of citizens regarding tax payments. Explicitly, the index is computed by taking the average responses on i) whether the individual agrees that people must pay taxes; ii) whether refusing to pay taxes is a legitimate protest action; iii) whether the government should have the right to collect taxes; iv) whether they trust tax officials or administration. We interpret the index as a measure of tax compliance attitudes of individuals. The index varies between 0 and 1 with larger values implying a higher possibility of tax compliance. For robustness check, we compute a variant index of tax compliance using the principal component analysis (PCA).

Across the 31 countries<sup>5</sup> , we observe a high possibility of tax compliance, with a mean tax morale index score of 0.62. Comparing rural and urban communities, we find marginal differences, with average index scores of 0.63 and 0.61, respectively. A similar pattern is observed for each component of the tax morale index, except trust in tax officials or administration, where less than half of the interviewees responded in the affirmative, indicating a lower degree of trust for tax officials (see Table 1).

Next, we compute an index of national identity. This variable measures the extent to which individuals identify themselves with their country relative to an ethnic group. It is an ordinal variable ranging from 1 to 5 where a larger value implies that an individual identifies himself (herself) more with the country relative to his (her) ethnic group. Overall, we observe a relatively high degree of national identity, with a mean index of 3.8.

Data on the provision of basic social infrastructure such as community access to electricity, pipe-borne water, schools, hospitals, paved roads, and reliable electricity supply are also used. Two measures of the quality of electricity supply are used in the analysis: households’ perceived measure of reliability and electricity-supply reliability in the community. Household electricity reliability is a five-point scale ranging from 1 to 5, with the lowest rank (1) referring to households connected to the grid but without electricity for use and the highest rank (5) for households with uninterrupted access to electricity. Using these data, we compute an aggregate electricity-reliability index in the community as

> 5Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Cˆote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Swaziland, S ̃ao Tom ́e and Pr ́ıncipe, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

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