IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imf/imfwpa/2015-250.html

The Unequal Benefits of Fuel Subsidies Revisited: Evidence for Developing Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Mr. David Coady
  • Valentina Flamini
  • Louis Sears

Abstract

Understanding who benefits from fuel price subsidies and the welfare impact of increasing fuel prices is key to designing, and gaining public support for, subsidy reform. This paper updates evidence for developing countries on the magnitude of the welfare impact of subsidy reform and its distribution across income groups, incorporating more recent studies and expanding the number of countries. These studies confirm that a very large share of benefits from price subsidies goes to high-income households, further reinforcing existing income inequalities. The results can also help to approximate the welfare impact of subsidy reform for countries where the data necessary for such an analysis is not available.

Suggested Citation

  • Mr. David Coady & Valentina Flamini & Louis Sears, 2015. "The Unequal Benefits of Fuel Subsidies Revisited: Evidence for Developing Countries," IMF Working Papers 2015/250, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2015/250
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=43422
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arze del Granado, Francisco Javier & Coady, David & Gillingham, Robert, 2012. "The Unequal Benefits of Fuel Subsidies: A Review of Evidence for Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(11), pages 2234-2248.
    2. repec:wbk:wbpubs:2246 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Mr. David Coady & Mr. Javier Arze del Granado, 2010. "The Unequal Benefits of Fuel Subsidies: A Review of Evidence for Developing Countries," IMF Working Papers 2010/202, International Monetary Fund.
    4. repec:wbk:wbpubs:2597 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. repec:wbk:wbpubs:6582 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. repec:wbk:wbpubs:16256 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Jon Sampedro & Iñaki Arto & Mikel González-Eguino, 2017. "Implications of Switching Fossil Fuel Subsidies to Solar: A Case Study for the European Union," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-12, December.
    2. Arzaghi, Mohammad & Squalli, Jay, 2015. "How price inelastic is demand for gasoline in fuel-subsidizing economies?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 117-124.
    3. Eberechukwu Uneze & Adedeji Adeniran, 2014. "Exploring Domestic Financing Options for Post-2015 Development Agenda in Selected Sub-Saharan African Countries," Southern Voice Occasional Paper 18, Southern Voice.
    4. Neil McCulloch, 2017. "Energy subsidies, international aid, and the politics of reform," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-174, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Malla, Sunil & Timilsina, Govinda R, 2014. "Household cooking fuel choice and adoption of improved cookstoves in developing countries : a review," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6903, The World Bank.
    6. Mundaca, Gabriela, 2017. "Energy subsidies, public investment and endogenous growth," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 693-709.
    7. Plante, Michael, 2011. "The long-run macroeconomic impacts of fuel subsidies in an oil-importing developing country," MPRA Paper 33823, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Kojima, Masami, 2013. "Drawing a roadmap for oil pricing reform," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6450, The World Bank.
    9. Stephen Howes & Paul Wyrwoll, 2012. "Climate Change Mitigation and Green Growth in Developing Asia," Working Papers id:5059, eSocialSciences.
    10. Edgar F.A. Cooke & Sarah Hague & Luca Tiberti & John Cockburn & Abdel-Rahmen El Lahga, 2016. "Estimating the impact on poverty of Ghana’s fuel subsidy reform and a mitigating response," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 105-128, March.
    11. Renner, Sebastian & Lay, Jann & Schleicher, Michael, 2017. "The Effects of Energy Price Changes: Heterogeneous Welfare Impacts, Energy Poverty, and CO₂ Emissions in Indonesia," GIGA Working Papers 302, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    12. Arief Anshory Yusuf & Andy Sumner, 2017. "Multidimensional poverty in Indonesia: How inclusive has economic growth been?," Departmental Working Papers 2017-09, The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.
    13. Stephen Howes & Paul Wyrwoll, 2012. "Climate Change Mitigation and Green Growth in Developing Asia," ADBI Working Papers 369, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    14. Hoy Chris & Sumner Andy, 2016. "Global Poverty and Inequality: Is There New Capacity for Redistribution in Developing Countries?," Journal of Globalization and Development, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 117-157, June.
    15. Rimawan Pradiptyo & Gumilang Aryo Sahadewo, 2016. "Eliminating the Fuel Subsidy in Indonesia: A Behavioral Approach," EEPSEA Research Report rr20160310, Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA), revised Mar 2016.
    16. Andrew Feltenstein & Biplab DattaAuthor-Email: bdatta2@student.gsu.edu, 2018. "Broad Based Subsidies or Targeted Transfers? An Analysis of the Electricity Subsidy in Pakistan," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1801, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    17. Harro van Asselt & Kati Kulovesi, 2017. "Seizing the opportunity: tackling fossil fuel subsidies under the UNFCCC," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 357-370, June.
    18. James Davies & Xiaojun Shi & John Whalley, 2014. "The possibilities for global inequality and poverty reduction using revenues from global carbon pricing," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 12(3), pages 363-391, September.
    19. Chadi ABDALLAH & Roland Kangni KPODAR, 2016. "Dynamic Fuel Price Pass-Through : Evidence from a New Global Retail Fuel Price Database," Working Papers 3669, FERDI.
    20. Charles E. McLure, 2014. "Reforming subsidies for fossil fuel consumption: Killing several birds with one stone," Chapters, in: Richard M. Bird & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez (ed.), Taxation and Development: The Weakest Link?, chapter 8, pages 238-284, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    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:imf:imfwpa:2015/250. 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: Akshay Modi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imfffus.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.