Sebastian Gazmuri Barker (London School of Economics), A Paradox of Tax Systems in Developing Countries, 43 Va. Tax Rev. ___ (2023): 

This article identifies the “inequality/progressivity paradox” of tax systems in developing countries, where high levels of inequality coexist with tax systems that score poorly in any measure of tax progressivity. This pattern is hard to reconcile with theories informing tax policy design. The article analyzes the historical evolution of the fiscal systems in developing countries through the bellicist theory and the dependency approach. 

From the analysis, the article offers a theory for the emergence of the paradox, where the lack of experience of “total” wars and the untimely emergence of a globalized economy and of the value added tax could explain the concerning pattern of very high levels of inequality and very low tax progressivity in these countries.