You may not like paying taxes, but your burden will be even higher if others don’t pay their fair share.

That, in a nutshell, goes a long way toward explaining why a value-added tax, or VAT, is used by just about every major country in the world except the United States.

Although the concept has never caught on in this country, the VAT has been a powerful, well-mannered weapon for progress. That is especially true in less-affluent nations, because it reduces tax evasion in a relatively effective and gentle way, as an emerging body of research shows.

Rich countries collect 34 percent of gross domestic product in taxes on average (the United States collects about 27 percent). But most low- and middle-income countries — a range of places, from Mali to Malaysia — collect much less, typically just 10 to 20 percent of G.D.P. The main reason is that it is harder to collect taxes in less-advanced nations, where a larger share of economic activity is informal, making tax evasion easier. Yet tax revenue, which enables governments to provide public goods like roads and schools, is at least as important in poorer countries.