This was much higher than in developing countries, where that share was, on average, only 28.2 per cent in Africa, 20.7 per cent in East, South and South-East Asia, 27.3 per cent in Latin America, 34.2 per cent in the transition economies, and 35.8 per cent in West Asia (table 5.2). As a result, developing countries, on average, have had less scope to influence income distribution through fiscal measures. Several studies have found that many low-income and least developed countries experienced a decline in their public revenue in the 1980s and 1990s, mostly as result of falling income and trade taxes (Heady, 2001, Khattry and Mohan Rao, 2002, Gemmell and Morrissey, 2003). In the 1980s the fiscal-revenue-to-GDP ratio declined in 7 out of 14 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (Sainz and Calcagno, 1992).