IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fpr/resrep/119.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Egyptian food subsidy system: structure, performance, and options for reform

Author

Listed:
  • Ahmed, Akhter U.
  • Gutner, Tamar
  • Lofgren, Hans
  • Bouis, Howarth E.

Abstract

Egypt's food subsidy system has been a mainstay of the government's long-term policy of promoting social equity and political stability. It has also been a major component of the social safety net for the poor, guaranteeing the availability of affordable staples, helping to reduce infant mortality and malnutrition, and mitigating the adverse effects of recent economic reform and structural adjustment.The cost of the system has declined considerably from 14 percent of government expenditures in 1980/81 to 5.6 percent in 1996/97. The absolute cost, however, remains high: In 1996/97,the total cost was 3.74 billion Egyptian pounds (LE)or about US$1.1 billion.The government and various stakeholders agree that the system's costs can be further reduced and its efficiency improved with better targeting to the needy. The Egyptian Food Subsidy System: Structure, Performance, and Options for Reform evaluates the economic, political, and technical feasibility of reducing costs while improving or maintaining the welfare of the poor.The report addresses five questions: (1)How well does the present system target the poor? (2)How much leakage — the pilferage of subsidized foods in the distribution channel —occurs? (3)At what cost does the government transfer income to the needy? (4)How can subsidies be better targeted to the needy?and (5)What are politically feasible options for reform?

Suggested Citation

  • Ahmed, Akhter U. & Gutner, Tamar & Lofgren, Hans & Bouis, Howarth E., 2001. "The Egyptian food subsidy system: structure, performance, and options for reform," Research reports 119, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    • Handle: RePEc:fpr:resrep:119
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/rr119.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ali, Sonia M. & Adams, Richard Jr, 1996. "The Egyptian food subsidy system: Operation and effects on income distribution," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(11), pages 1777-1791, November.
    2. Bouis, Howarth E. & Haddad, Lawrence J., 1992. "Are estimates of calorie-income fxelasticities too high? : A recalibration of the plausible range," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 333-364, October.
    3. Deaton,Angus & Muellbauer,John, 1980. "Economics and Consumer Behavior," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521296762.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Paula Carvalho Pereda & Denisard Cneio de Oliveira Alves, 2008. "Demand for Nutrients in Brazil," Anais do XXXVI Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 36th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 200807211136590, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    2. Chavas, Jean-Paul, 2000. "The microeconomics of food security," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 44(1), pages 1-29.
    3. Debbie L Humphries & Jere R Behrman & Benjamin T Crookston & Kirk A Dearden & Whitney Schott & Mary E Penny & on behalf of the Young Lives Determinants and Consequences of Child Growth Project Team, 2014. "Households across All Income Quintiles, Especially the Poorest, Increased Animal Source Food Expenditures Substantially during Recent Peruvian Economic Growth," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(11), pages 1-13, November.
    4. Taniguchi, Kiyoshi & Chern, Wen S., 2000. "Income Elasticity Of Rice Demand In Japan And Its Implications: Cross-Sectional Data Analysis," 2000 Annual meeting, July 30-August 2, Tampa, FL 21755, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    5. Andreas Chai, 2018. "Household consumption patterns and the sectoral composition of growing economies: A review of the interlinkages," Discussion Papers in Economics economics:201802, Griffith University, Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics.
    6. Fuwa, Nobuhiko, 2005. "Intrahousehold Analysis Using Household Consumption Data: Would the Potential Benefit of Collecting Individual-Level Consumption Data Justify Its Cost?," MPRA Paper 23689, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Sajjad & Zahoor Ul Haq & Zia Ullah, 2018. "Food Price Subsidy and its Effects on Poverty in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan," Global Social Sciences Review, Humanity Only, vol. 3(3), pages 54-73, September.
    8. J. K. Pappalardo, 2022. "Economics of Consumer Protection: Contributions and Challenges in Estimating Consumer Injury and Evaluating Consumer Protection Policy," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 201-238, June.
    9. Rajeev K. Goel & Shoji Haruna, 2021. "Unmasking the demand for masks: Analytics of mandating coronavirus masks," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(3), pages 580-591, July.
    10. Lee, Jonq-Ying & Brown, Mark G. & Schwartz, Brooke, 1986. "The Demand For National Brand And Private Label Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice: A Switching Regression Analysis," Western Journal of Agricultural Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 11(1), pages 1-7, July.
    11. Richard Chisik & Nazanin Behzadan & Harun Onder & Apurva Sanghi, 2016. "Aid, Remittances, the Dutch Disease, Refugees, and Kenya," Working Papers 062, Ryerson University, Department of Economics.
    12. Hirte, Georg & Tscharaktschiew, Stefan, 2018. "The impact of anti-congestion policies and the role of labor-supply margins," CEPIE Working Papers 04/18, Technische Universität Dresden, Center of Public and International Economics (CEPIE).
    13. Brito Paulo & Marini Giancarlo & Piergallini Alessandro, 2016. "House prices and monetary policy," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 20(3), pages 251-277, June.
    14. Ugo Colombino & Nizamul Islam, 2021. "Combining microsimulation and optimization to identify optimal universalistic tax-transfer rule," LISER Working Paper Series 2021-06, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    15. Smith, Lisa C. & Chavas, Jean-Paul, 1999. "Supply response of West African agricultural households," FCND discussion papers 69, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    16. Gregory J. Colman & Dahlia K. Remler, 2008. "Vertical equity consequences of very high cigarette tax increases: If the poor are the ones smoking, how could cigarette tax increases be progressive?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 376-400.
    17. James L Swofford, 2000. "Microeconomic foundations of an optimal currency area," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(2), pages 121-128, December.
    18. Bernard M. S. van Praag & Nico L. van der Sar, 1988. "Household Cost Functions and Equivalence Scales," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 23(2), pages 193-210.
    19. Junichi Minagawa & Thorsten Upmann, 2019. "Price Effects on Compound Commodities," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 121(2), pages 630-646, April.
    20. Albert van der Horst & Arjan Lejour & Bas Straathof, 2006. "Innovation policy; Europe or the member states?," CPB Document 132.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fpr:resrep:119. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifprius.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.