Émilie Caldeira

Emilie Caldeira is an Associate Professor at the Center for Studies and Research in International Development (CERDI, Université Clermont Auvergne) and an expert for international institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank, the OECD, the United Nations, the African Development Bank, the French Development Agency, and regional organizations like ECOWAS, WAEMU, and CEMAC. Her research focuses on taxation, public finance, and political economy in developing countries, with a particular interest in fiscal decentralization, tax effort, tax expenditures, and public spending efficiency.

She completed her Ph.D. in 2011, analyzing strategic interactions between local governments in contexts of limited fiscal resources (Benin) and the absence of local democracy (China). Her work examined the impact of central transfers on local revenue in Benin and the determinants of transfer allocations in Senegal. One of the essays from her dissertation was awarded the Best 2009 IIPF Young Economist Award. After a postdoctoral fellowship in the Max Weber Program at the European University Institute in Florence, she joined Université Clermont Auvergne in 2013.

Her publications appear in top peer-reviewed journals, including World Development, where she co-authored a study with Olivier Bargain and Rose-Camille Vincent assessing the impact of decentralization in Burkina Faso using satellite data on nighttime lights. In International Tax and Public Finance, she explored the taxation of foreign aid, and in the Revue d’Économie du Développement, she provided new estimates of tax effort in sub-Saharan Africa. She has also co-authored several reports for international organizations, including a study for the Platform for Collaboration on Tax on the taxation of aid and a report on tax expenditure evaluation for the IMF and WAEMU.

Her expertise has led her to work with governments across sub-Saharan Africa, including Guinea, Benin, Togo, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Cameroon, Mauritania, and Kenya. She assists tax and customs administrations in designing fiscal policies, evaluating tax expenditures, and modernizing revenue administrations. She regularly conducts training sessions and capacity-building seminars for government officials as part of missions for the IMF, Expertise France, ATAF, and other regional organizations.

Her research combines academic inquiry with hands-on policy expertise, aiming to enhance domestic resource mobilization and improve the effectiveness of public policies in developing countries.