Jacqueline Coolidge

 

Over 25 years of professional experience with private sector development and investment climate reform in developing and transition countries, with a focus on policy, tax, legal, and regulatory reforms to improve the investment climate/business enabling environment, at both the national and sub-national levels. Leading expert in measurement of compliance costs for businesses with regard to business taxes and licensing/regulation in developing countries. Expertise in monitoring and evaluation of reforms to improve investment climate/business enabling environment. Experience with analysis of the impacts of policy/legal/tax and regulatory reforms on compliance and investment (both foreign direct investment and domestic SME growth). Statistical analysis of business investment and formalization in developing and transition economies. Extensive field experience in Central and Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southern Africa, and the Caribbean.

 

 

Professional History:

 

Sept. 2008 – present: Independent Consultant

 

Consultant to the World Bank Group, Investment Climate Department (formerly Foreign Investment Advisory Service, FIAS) on tax compliance cost surveys for businesses in South Africa, Ukraine, Peru, Yemen, India (Bihar), Armenia, Lao PDR, Nepal, Burundi and Uzbekistan; evasion-risk analysis for small businesses in Burundi, Yemen and Vietnam; licensing compliance cost surveys for monitoring and evaluation of licensing reforms in Bosnia, Serbia, Kenya and Madagascar; development of appropriate impact indicators of investment climate reforms for tax and regulatory simplification in developing and transition countries; assessment of monitoring and evaluation capacity for IFC Advisory Services in the Africa region; authored manuals for tax compliance cost surveys and for sub-national tax/regulatory reforms.

 

Consultant with Jacobs and Associates on licensing reform in Mauritius and regulatory reform in Vietnam.

 

Consultant with Nexus Associates for mid-term evaluation of the Investment Climate Facility for Africa.

 

Consultant with Calgary University School of Public Policy for development of executive programs in regulatory and business tax reform.

 

 

2003 – 2008:               Lead Investment Policy Officer, Foreign Investment Advisory Service (FIAS), the World Bank Group.

 

Responsible for FIAS work in monitoring and evaluation of reforms in the Business Enabling Environment (from 2006). Development of standardized logical frameworks for reforms in the area of business registration, licensing, tax compliance, and inspections, including quantitative and qualitative indicators of outcomes and impacts of such reforms. Responsible for quality control for projects in the area of regulatory simplification (e.g., business tax administration, company registration and licensing, inspections). Lead responsibility for the area of removal of administrative barriers to investment in client countries. Responsible for FIAS projects in Central and Eastern Europe covering policy toward foreign direct investment, investment legislation, investment incentives, and regulatory reform (2003 – 2006). Oversaw independent evaluation of the impact of FIAS’ activities for the period 2004 – 2007.

 

Task Team Leader for specific projects:

·      Tax Compliance Cost Survey for businesses in South Africa, Ukraine, Yemen, Peru

·      Survey of licensing compliance costs in Madagascar and Bosnia

·      Investment Legislation, Taxation and Promotion in Namibia

·      Legislative reform for businesses’ access to land in the Russian Federation

·      Survey of Businesses’ access to land in the Russian Federation

·      Analysis of International Entrepreneurship Database

·      Case Study of impact of reforms to improve the investment climate in Latvia

·      Removal of administrative barriers to investment in Poland

·      Manual for Removal of Administrative Barriers to Investment

 

 

1996 – 2003:               Senior Investment Policy Officer, FIAS

 

Responsible for FIAS projects covering policy toward foreign direct investment in various countries in Europe, Africa, Middle East, and the Caribbean. Development of methodology for identification and removal of administrative barriers to investment (including company registration, expatriate work permits, licensing, inspections, tax administration/compliance, customs administration, businesses’ access to land, construction permits, etc.).  Regional Program Coordinator for FIAS in Europe and Central Asia (1999 – 2003).

 

Task Team Leader for specific projects:

 

·      Identification and Removal of Administrative Barriers to investment in the Russian Federation (focus on oblast level; 7 Oblasts)

·      Corporate tax and investment incentives in Croatia

·      Identification and Removal of Administrative Barriers to Investment in Latvia

·      Identification and Removal of Administrative Barriers to Investment in Lithuania

·      Legal and Tax reforms to improve foreign direct investment in the Slovak Republic

·      Legal and Tax reforms to improve foreign direct investment in the Romania

·      Corporate tax and investment incentives in Bulgaria

·      Diagnostic update of the climate for FDI in Estonia

·      Diagnostic assessment of the climate for FDI in St. Kitts

·      Diagnostic assessment of the climate for FDI in Yemen

·      Diagnostic assessment of the climate for FDI in Ethiopia

 

 

1993 – 1996:               Economist, Public and Private Enterprises Division, East Africa Department, the World Bank

 

Responsible for World Bank projects on private sector development, export development, and privatization in E. Africa.

 

Specific projects:

·      Ethiopia Private Sector Development

·      Eritrea micro-finance

·      Uganda PSD and export development

·      Kenya export development

 

 

1991 – 1992:               Independent consultant, private sector development, infrastructure development, and environmental analysis

 

Specific projects:

·      Economic analysis of environmental damages to municipalities in Alaska from the Exxon Valdiz oil spill (background analysis for expert testimony for court case against Exxon)

·      Analysis of private ownership/management/concessions for power and water utilities in developing countries (University of Michigan, Department of Economics)

·      Development of non-traditional exports in Nicaragua (Louis Berger Int’l Inc.)

 

 

1988 – 1990:               Regional Manager, E. Africa, Louis Berger International, Inc.

 

Regional Manager for LBII projects in E. Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya. Projects included private sector development, road maintenance, port development and rangelands development in Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda.

 

 

1985 – 1988:               Economist, Louis Berger International, Inc.

 

Projects included:

 

·      evaluation of USAID private sector development projects in the E. Caribbean (including SME development, investment promotion, development of business advocacy organizations, based in Barbados);

·      agribusiness development in Central America;

·      transport sector development in Ethiopia;

·      water industry development in Somalia.

 

 

1984 – 1985:               Independent economic development consultant, Mogadishu, Somalia

 

Projects included water industry development, road maintenance

 

 

1980 – 1982:               U.S. Peace Corps, Botswana

 

Taught mathematics and development studies to secondary school students in Mahalapye, Botswana

 

 

Date of birth: 1958

 

Nationality:    U.S.A.

 

Education:      Ph. D.(abd)/M.A., Economics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1993

                        Master of Public Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, 1984

                        B.A., International Relations, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD, 1980

 

Languages:     English – native language

                        French – minimal

                        Russian – minimal

 

 

Publications:

Simplified Small Business Tax Regimes in Developing Countries: Empirical Evidence of Use and Abuse" Jacqueline Coolidge & Fatih Yılmaz in Tax Simplification, Edited by Chris Evans, Richard Kreve, and Peter Mellor. Kluwer Law International , 2015
Can E-filing reduce tax compliance costs in developing countries? , 2014
Findings of Tax Compliance Cost Surveys in Developing Countries , 2012
Avoiding the Fiscal Pitfalls of Subnational Regulationwith Laurent Corthay, 2011
Surveying Businesses on Tax Compliance Costs, 2011
Tax Perception and Compliance Cost Surveys, 2011
Tax Compliance Cost Survey, 2010
Tax compliance perceptions and formalization of small businesses in South Africa, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 4992 (with Damogoj Ilic), 2009
How big is a rat’s nest? The challenge of M&E for Business Operations, FIAS, 2009
Small businesses in South Africa : who outsources tax compliance work and why? World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 4873 (with Damogoj Ilic and Gregory Kisunko), 2009

South Africa - Tax Compliance Costs for Small Businesses - Provincial Analysis (with Damogoj Ilic and Gregory Kisunko), June 2008

Understanding and Improving Data on Entrepreneurship and Active Companies (with Ronald Luttikhuizen and Kusisami Hornberger), June 2008

Tax Compliance Burden in South Africa: A Survey of Tax Practitioners (with Sharon Smulders and Gregory Kisunko), 2007

Improving the Business Environment in Latvia: The Impact of Fias Assistance (Fias Occasional Papers No. 18) (with Sanda Liepina and Lars Grava), 2007

Survey of Land and Real Estate Transactions in the Russian Federation: Statistical Analysis of Selected Hypotheses (with Gregory Kisunko), Policy Research Working Paper No. 4115, 2007

Reducing Administrative Barriers to Investment: Lessons Learned (with Scott Jacobs), FIAS Occasional Paper No. 17, 2006

Reforming Inspections: Countering Corruption and Waste, Viewpoint Note no. 308, 2006
A Manual for Identification and Removal of Administrative Barriers to Investment, FIAS manual, 2006, Module 1, Module 2, Module 3, Module 4
Administrative Barriers to Investment in Latvia, with Lars Grava, in Doing Business with Latvia, edited by Marat Terterov, Kogan Page, 2003
Administrative Barriers to Investment into the Russian Federation, in Doing Business with Russia, edited by Marat Terterov, Kogan Page, 2003
Kleptocracy and Reform in African Regimes: Theory and Examples, with Susan Rose-Ackerman, in Corruption and Development in Africa, Lessons from Country Case Studies, edited by Kempe Ronald Hope, Sr. and Bornwell C. Chikulo, MacMillan Press, Ltd., 2000
Urban Environmental Services in Developing Countries, with Richard Porter and Zhong Zhang, EPAT/MUCIA Working Paper No. 9, 1993, USAID