IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v33y2011i2p273-283.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Estimates of energy subsidies in China and impact of energy subsidy reform

Author

Listed:
  • Lin, Boqiang
  • Jiang, Zhujun

Abstract

For a transitional economy such as China, some energy subsidies are reasonable, and sometimes even necessary for achieving social goals. However, with rising energy prices and environmental concerns, we see conflicts emerging between energy subsidies, energy demand/supply fundamentals and climate change considerations. Energy subsidies have important implications for sustainable development through their effects on energy use, efficiency and the choice of fuel source. This paper applies the price-gap approach to estimate China's energy subsidies. Results indicate that China's energy subsidies amounted to CNY 356.73 billion in 2007, equivalent to 1.43% of GDP. Subsidies for oil products consumption are the largest, followed by subsidies for the electricity and coal sectors. Furthermore, a CGE model is used to analyze the economic impacts of energy subsidy reforms. Our findings show that removing energy subsidies will result in a significant fall in energy demand and emissions, but will have negative impacts on macroeconomic variables. We conclude that offsetting policies could be adopted such that certain shares of these subsidies are reallocated to support other sustainable development measures, which could lead to reducing energy intensity and favoring the environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Lin, Boqiang & Jiang, Zhujun, 2011. "Estimates of energy subsidies in China and impact of energy subsidy reform," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 273-283, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:33:y:2011:i:2:p:273-283
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140-9883(10)00114-3
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kebede, Bereket, 2006. "Energy subsidies and costs in urban Ethiopia: The cases of kerosene and electricity," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(13), pages 2140-2151.
    2. Brons, Martijn & Nijkamp, Peter & Pels, Eric & Rietveld, Piet, 2008. "A meta-analysis of the price elasticity of gasoline demand. A SUR approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 2105-2122, September.
    3. W. M. Corden, 1957. "The Calculation Op The Cost Op Protection," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 33(64), pages 29-51, April.
    4. ANDERSON, KYM & McKIBBIN, WARWICK J., 2000. "Reducing coal subsidies and trade barriers: their contribution to greenhouse gas abatement," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(4), pages 457-481, October.
    5. Jean-Marc Burniaux & Jean Château & Rob Dellink & Romain Duval & Stéphanie Jamet, 2009. "The Economics of Climate Change Mitigation: How to Build the Necessary Global Action in a Cost-Effective Manner," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 701, OECD Publishing.
    6. Vedenov, Dmitry & Wetzstein, Michael, 2008. "Toward an optimal U.S. ethanol fuel subsidy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 2073-2090, September.
    7. -, 2009. "The economics of climate change," Sede Subregional de la CEPAL para el Caribe (Estudios e Investigaciones) 38679, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    8. Espey, Molly, 1998. "Gasoline demand revisited: an international meta-analysis of elasticities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 273-295, June.
    9. John M. Piotrowski & David Coady & Justin Tyson & Rolando Ossowski & Robert Gillingham & Shamsuddin Tareq, 2010. "Petroleum Product Subsidies; Costly, Inequitable, and On the Rise," IMF Staff Position Notes 2010/05, International Monetary Fund.
    10. Riedy, Chris & Diesendorf, Mark, 2003. "Financial subsidies to the Australian fossil fuel industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 125-137, January.
    11. Chattopadhyay, Pradip, 2004. "Cross-subsidy in electricity tariffs: evidence from India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 673-684, March.
    12. Dube, Ikhupuleng, 2003. "Impact of energy subsidies on energy consumption and supply in Zimbabwe. Do the urban poor really benefit?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(15), pages 1635-1645, December.
    13. Gangopadhyay, Shubhashis & Ramaswami, Bharat & Wadhwa, Wilima, 2005. "Reducing subsidies on household fuels in India: how will it affect the poor?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(18), pages 2326-2336, December.
    14. Xie, Jian & Saltzman, Sidney, 2000. "Environmental Policy Analysis: An Environmental Computable General-Equilibrium Approach for Developing Countries," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 453-489, July.
    15. Chattopadhyay, Pradip, 2007. "Testing viability of cross subsidy using time-variant price elasticities of industrial demand for electricity: Indian experience," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 487-496, January.
    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. Liu, Wei & Li, Hong, 2011. "Improving energy consumption structure: A comprehensive assessment of fossil energy subsidies reform in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 4134-4143, July.
    2. Li, Aijun & Lin, Boqiang, 2013. "Comparing climate policies to reduce carbon emissions in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 667-674.
    3. Lin, Boqiang & Li, Aijun, 2012. "Impacts of removing fossil fuel subsidies on China: How large and how to mitigate?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 741-749.
    4. Jiang, Zhujun & Lin, Boqiang, 2014. "The perverse fossil fuel subsidies in China—The scale and effects," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 411-419.
    5. Iuliia Ogarenko & Klaus Hubacek, 2013. "Eliminating Indirect Energy Subsidies in Ukraine: Estimation of Environmental and Socioeconomic Effects Using Input–Output Modeling," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 2(1), pages 1-27, December.
    6. Peltovuori, Ville, 2017. "Fossil fuel subsidies in the Pacific island context: Analysis of the case of Kiribati," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 102-110.
    7. Jiang, Zhujun & Ouyang, Xiaoling & Huang, Guangxiao, 2015. "The distributional impacts of removing energy subsidies in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 111-122.
    8. Ghoddusi, Hamed & Morovati, Mohammad & Rafizadeh, Nima, 2022. "Dynamics of fuel demand elasticity: Evidence from Iranian subsidy reforms," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    9. Breisinger, Clemens & Engelke, Wilfried & Ecker, Olivier, 2011. "Petroleum subsidies in Yemen : leveraging reform for development," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5577, The World Bank.
    10. Mills, Evan, 2017. "Global Kerosene Subsidies: An Obstacle to Energy Efficiency and Development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 463-480.
    11. Acharya, Rajesh H. & Sadath, Anver C., 2017. "Implications of energy subsidy reform in India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 453-462.
    12. Wesseh, Presley K. & Lin, Boqiang & Atsagli, Philip, 2016. "Environmental and welfare assessment of fossil-fuels subsidies removal: A computable general equilibrium analysis for Ghana," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 116(P1), pages 1172-1179.
    13. Jiang, Zhujun & Tan, Jijun, 2013. "How the removal of energy subsidy affects general price in China: A study based on input–output model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 599-606.
    14. Li, Aijun & Du, Nan & Wei, Qian, 2014. "The cross-country implications of alternative climate policies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 155-163.
    15. Labandeira, Xavier & Labeaga, José M. & López-Otero, Xiral, 2017. "A meta-analysis on the price elasticity of energy demand," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 549-568.
    16. Benjamin Jones & Michael Keen & Jon Strand, 2013. "Fiscal implications of climate change," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 20(1), pages 29-70, February.
    17. Liddle, Brantley & Parker, Steven, 2022. "One more for the road: Reconsidering whether OECD gasoline income and price elasticities have changed over time," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    18. Broberg, Thomas, 2014. "Relative income and the WTP for public goods - A case study of forest conservation in Sweden," CERE Working Papers 2014:6, CERE - the Center for Environmental and Resource Economics.
    19. Yuliya Lovcha & Alejandro Perez-Laborda, 2017. "Structural shocks and dynamic elasticities in a long memory model of the US gasoline retail market," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 405-422, September.
    20. Jiang, Haiyan & Hu, Yuanyuan & Zhang, Honghui & Zhou, Donghua, 2018. "Benefits of Downward Earnings Management and Political Connection: Evidence from Government Subsidy and Market Pricing," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 53(4), pages 255-273.

    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:eee:eneeco:v:33:y:2011:i:2:p:273-283. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eneco .

    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.