Evidence on top incomes in Tanzania 1948-1970

This paper examines one aspect of the historical income distribution in Tanzania – the shares of top incomes – using information published as a result of the administration of the individual income tax. Although tax data were employed in earlier studies of developing countries, they have tended in recent years to be rejected as a source. In one sense, this is not surprising. Income taxes only cover a part, sometimes a very small part, of the population. The resulting data cannot provide a picture of the overall distribution.