Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reforms

Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reforms
Author: Jun Rentschler
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2018-04-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1351175815

Countries around the world are spending up to $500 billion per year on subsidising fossil fuel consumption. By some estimates, the G20 countries alone are spending around another $450 billion on subsidising fossil fuel production. In addition, the indirect social welfare costs of these subsidies have been shown to be substantial – for instance due to air pollution, road congestion, climate change, and economic inefficiency, to name a few. Considering these numbers, there is no doubt that fossil fuel subsidies cause severe economic distortions that compromise countries’ prospects of achieving equitable and sustainable development. This book provides a guide to the complex challenge of designing, assessing, and implementing effective fossil fuel subsidy reforms. It shows that subsidy reform requires a careful balancing of complex economic and political trade-offs, as well as measures to mitigate adverse effects on vulnerable households and to assist firms with implementing efficiency enhancing measures. Going beyond the purely fiscal perspective, this book emphasises that smart subsidy reforms can contribute to all three dimensions of sustainable development – environment, society, and economy. Over the course of eight chapters, this book considers a wide range of agents and stakeholders, markets, and policy measures in order to distil the key principles of designing effective fossil fuel subsidy reforms. This book will be of great relevance to scholars and policy makers with an interest in energy economics and policy, climate change policy, and sustainable development more broadly.

Energy Subsidy Reform

Energy Subsidy Reform
Author: Mr.Benedict J. Clements
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2013-09-13
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1484339169

Energy subsidies are aimed at protecting consumers, however, subsidies aggravate fiscal imbalances, crowd out priority public spending, and depress private investment, including in the energy sector. This book provides the most comprehensive estimates of energy subsidies currently available for 176 countries and an analysis of “how to do” energy subsidy reform, drawing on insights from 22 country case studies undertaken by the IMF staff and analyses carried out by other institutions.

Subsidy Reform in the Middle East and North Africa

Subsidy Reform in the Middle East and North Africa
Author: Mr.Carlo A Sdralevich
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2014-07-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1498350437

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries price subsidies are common, especially on food and fuels. However, these are neither well targeted nor cost effective as a social protection tool, often benefiting mainly the better off instead of the poor and vulnerable. This paper explores the challenges of replacing generalized price subsidies with more equitable social safety net instruments, including the short-term inflationary effects, and describes the features of successful subsidy reforms.

Reforming Energy and Transport Subsidies

Reforming Energy and Transport Subsidies
Author: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Publisher: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Total Pages: 180
Release: 1997
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Energy Subsidy Reform in Sub-Saharan Africa

Energy Subsidy Reform in Sub-Saharan Africa
Author: Mr.Trevor Serge Coleridge Alleyne
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 125
Release: 2013-08-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1484366549

The reform of energy subsidies is an important but challenging issue for sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. There is a relatively large theoretical and empirical literature on this issue. While this paper relies on that literature, too, it tailors its discussion to SSA countries to respond to the following questions: Why it is important to reduce energy subsidies? What are the difficulties involved in energy subsidy reform? How best can a subsidy reform be implemented? This paper uses various sources of information on SSA countries: quantitative assessments, surveys, and individual (but standardized) case studies.

Environmentally Harmful Subsidies

Environmentally Harmful Subsidies
Author:
Publisher: OECD
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2005-08-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Subsidies are pervasive throughout OECD countries and worldwide. Every year, OECD countries transfer at least USD 400 billion to different economic sectors. Much of this support is potentially environmentally harmful. Reforming environmentally harmful subsidies is a significant policy challenge facing OECD countries. However, untangling and assessing the effects of subsidies on the environment is a complex task. A systematic approach is required to ensure that appropriate policies are developed and the benefits of reform fully realised. This report presents sectoral analyses on agriculture, fisheries, water, energy and transport. It proposes a checklist approach to identifying and assessing environmentally harmful subsidies. It also identifies the key tensions and conflicts that are likely to influence subsidy policy making. Can the political and economic impediments to subsidy reform be overcome? This book concludes with a discussion of politically feasible subsidy reform strategies. FURTHER READING Environmentally Harmful Subsidies: Policy Issues and Challenges (OECD, 2003)

The Politics of Fossil Fuel Subsidies and Their Reform

The Politics of Fossil Fuel Subsidies and Their Reform
Author: Jakob Skovgaard
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2018-08-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1108416799

This comprehensive volume provides the first book-length account on the politics of fossil fuel subsidies. This title is also available as Open Access.

Government Subsidies

Government Subsidies
Author: Mr.Benedict J. Clements
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 58
Release: 1995-09-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1451851480

This paper addresses the problems of defining and measuring government subsidies, examines why and how government subsidies are used as a fiscal policy tool, assesses their economic effects, appraises international empirical evidence on government subsidies, and offers options for their reform. Recent international trends in government subsidy expenditure are analyzed for the 16-year period from 1975 to 1990, using general government subsidy data for 60 countries from the System of National Accounts (SNA) and central government expenditure on subsidies and other current transfers for 68 countries from Government Finance Statistics (GFS). The paper reviews major policy options for subsidy reform, focusing on ways to improve the cost-effectiveness of subsidy programs.