Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference.
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Some information on the session logistics:
If not stated otherwise, the discussant is the following speaker, with the first speaker being the discussant of the last paper. The last speaker of each session is the session chair. (Exception: invited sessions)
Presenters should speak for no more than 20 minutes, and discussants should limit their remarks to no more than 5 minutes. The remaining time should be reserved for audience questions and the presenter’s responses. We suggest following these guidelines also in the (less common) 3-paper sessions in a 2-hour slot, to allow participants to move between sessions. Discussants are encouraged to avoid summarizing the paper. By focusing on a few questions and comments, the discussants can help start a broader discussion with the audience.
Only registered participants can attend this conference. Further information available on the congress website https://www.iseg.ulisboa.pt/en/event/iipf/ .
Venue address: ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics & Management, R. Francesinhas 21, 1200-675 Lisboa, Portugal
Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 17th Sept 2026, 11:37:43am WEST
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Daily Overview |
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C07: VAT Compliance, Refunds, and Tax Administration Location: Room 107 (Francesinhas 1) | |
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Tax Refund Delays and Firm Performance: Evidence from Zambia 1: UNU-WIDER, Finland; 2: National University of Singapore; 3: Zambia Revenue Authority We examine the economic consequences of delayed Value Added Tax (VAT) refunds in developing countries, using a novel administrative dataset covering the universe of VAT refund claims in Zambia. We document severe delays in refund processing, with firms waiting, on average, nearly 700 days for reimbursement—over 20 times the statutory processing period. Merging refund records with the universe of firms' VAT and Corporate Income Tax (CIT) filings, we show that prolonged refund delays have substantial adverse effects on firm performance, reducing sales, taxable purchases, profits, investment, and employment. To address the endogeneity of refund delays, we exploit plausibly exogenous variation in administrative congestion using a leave-one-out measure of the average delay experienced by other firms entering the refund system at the same time. The instrumental-variable estimates indicate that the economic costs of refund delays are large and persistent, consistent with firms facing binding working-capital constraints while awaiting reimbursement.
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