IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/fcnddp/94518.html

The Political Economy Of Food Subsidy Reform In Egypt

Author

Listed:
  • Gutner, Tamar L.

Abstract

Egypt has a large food subsidy program that has created a relatively effective social safety net, but it has also drained budgetary resources and proved to be poorly targeted toward the poor. Discussions about reforming the system to improve its effectiveness have run into extreme political sensitivities surrounding the issue of food subsidies. Egypt, therefore, well illustrates the quandaries that policymakers and others contemplating food subsidy reform face in developing countries. This study examines the political economy of food subsidy reform in Egypt and discusses the economic and political advantages and disadvantages of nine possible reforms. The study concludes that the reforms that have the greatest chance of success are those that reduce the access of the wealthy while increasing the access of the truly needy, but the timing, sequence, and trade-offs of such reforms have to be taken into account before they are implemented.

Suggested Citation

  • Gutner, Tamar L., 1999. "The Political Economy Of Food Subsidy Reform In Egypt," FCND Discussion Papers 94518, CGIAR, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:fcnddp:94518
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.94518
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/94518/files/the%20political%20economy%20of%20food%20subsidy%20redorm%20in%20egypt.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.94518?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mr. Arvind Subramanian, 1997. "The Egyptian Stabilization Experience: An Analytical Retrospective," IMF Working Papers 1997/105, International Monetary Fund.
    2. 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.
    3. Tuck, L. & Lindert, K., 1996. "From Universal Food Subsidies to a Self-Targeted Program: A Case Study in Tunisian Reform," World Bank - Discussion Papers 351, World Bank.
    4. Scobie, Grant McDonald, 1981. "Government policy and food imports: the case of wheat in Egypt," Research reports 29, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    5. Alderman, Harold & Sakr, Sakr Ahmed & von Braun, Joachim, 1982. "Egypt's food subsidy and rationing system: a description," Research reports 34, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    6. Gutner, Tammi, 1999. "The political economy of food subsidy reform in Egypt," FCND discussion papers 77, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    7. Gutner, Tammi, 1999. "The political economy of Food subsidy reform in Egypt," FCND briefs 1, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    8. Gaurav Datt & Dean Jolliffe & Manohar Sharma, 2001. "A Profile of Poverty in Egypt," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 13(2), pages 202-237.
    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. Gutner, Tammi, 1999. "The political economy of food subsidy reform in Egypt," FCND discussion papers 77, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    2. Gutner, Tamar, 2002. "The political economy of food subsidy reform: the case of Egypt," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(5-6), pages 455-476.
    3. Ahmed, Akhter U. & Bouis, Howarth E., 2002. "Weighing what's practical: proxy means tests for targeting food subsidies in Egypt," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(5-6), pages 519-540.
    4. Cassing, James & Nassar, Saad & Siam, Gamal & Moussa, Hoda, 2007. "Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Egypt," Agricultural Distortions Working Paper Series 48511, World Bank.
    5. James Cassing, 2007. "Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Egypt," Working Paper 313, Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh, revised Jul 2008.
    6. Farrar, Curtis, 2000. "A review of food subsidy research at IFPRI," Impact assessments 12, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    7. Krishna, Anirudh, 2007. "For Reducing Poverty Faster: Target Reasons Before People," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 1947-1960, November.
    8. Gruhn, Peter & Kherallah, Mylene & Lofgren, Hans & Reeder, Meyra M., 2000. "Wheat policy reform in Egypt: adjustment of local markets and options for future reforms," Research reports 115, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    9. Farrar, Curtis, 2000. "A review of food subsidy research at IFPRI," Impact Assessment Discussion Papers 48650, CGIAR, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    10. Wichelns, Dennis, 2001. "The role of `virtual water' in efforts to achieve food security and other national goals, with an example from Egypt," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 131-151, July.
    11. Adams, Richard H. Jr., 2000. "The politics of economic policy reform in developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2443, The World Bank.
    12. Bargawi Hannah, 2014. "Economic Policies, Structural Change and the Roots of the “Arab Spring” in Egypt," Review of Middle East Economics and Finance, De Gruyter, vol. 10(3), pages 219-246, December.
    13. Farrar, Curtis, 2000. "A Review Of Food Subsidy Research At Ifpri," Impact Assessment Discussion Papers 16584, CGIAR, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    14. World Bank, 2013. "From Universal Price Subsidies to Modern Social Assistance : The Political Economy of Reform," World Bank Publications - Reports 16723, The World Bank Group.
    15. van de Walle, Dominique, 1998. "Targeting Revisited," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 13(2), pages 231-248, August.
    16. Zaki, Mokhlis Y., 2001. "IMF-Supported Stabilization Programs and their Critics: Evidence from the Recent Experience of Egypt," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(11), pages 1867-1883, November.
    17. Mohajan, Haradhan, 2013. "Food, Agriculture and Economic Situation of Bangladesh," MPRA Paper 54240, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 18 Aug 2013.
    18. Arndt, Channing & Simler, Kenneth R., 2005. "Estimating utility-consistent poverty lines," FCND briefs 189, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    19. Adams, Richard H., Jr., 1991. "The effects of international remittances on poverty, inequality, and development in rural Egypt," Research reports 86, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    20. Léonce Ndikumana, 2003. "Capital Flows, Capital Account Regimes, and Foreign Exchange Rate Regimes in Africa," Working Papers wp55, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ags:fcnddp:94518. 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: AgEcon Search (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.