implications of energy subsidy reform in india abstract this paper analyses welfare impact of energy subsidy reform in india based on the data from 1970 71 to 2014 15 to this end auto regressive distributed lag ardl model and error correction model ecm have been estimated to quantify the short run and long run price and the income elasticity of various energy products the results show that the price elasticity of demand for all fossil fuels is low but the respective income elasticity is higher therefore an increase in the general price level caused by the subsidy reform will lead to the erosion of real income and will have related welfare implications in india the results also reveal that energy expenditure will obviously increase and hence energy consumption will decline depending upon the extent of the withdrawal of subsidy therefore policy makers in india while undertaking further reforms must ensure that the subsidy reaches to those who truly deserve so that the socioeconomic casualty of reforms can be minimized along with achieving fiscal goals

quantifying the impacts of energy price reform on living expenses in saudi arabia abstract as part of vision 2030 saudi arabia has initiated a broad based energy reform programme aimed at gradually reducing its dependence on oil this paper assesses the impacts of energy price reforms on living expenses of various household groups in saudi arabia for this purpose the input output table combined with household expenditure data are used to model the impacts results show that the distributional impacts of energy price reforms are regressive with low income households experiencing a higher increase in living expenses compared to high income households the impacts are primarily instigated by rising prices of energy intensive products after decomposing the impacts into direct and indirect effects it was found that indirect effect is not only responsible for a considerable rise in household expenditure on energy intensive products but it is also distributionally regressive it is therefore vital for policymakers to review and fine tune the social protection system to protect poor households against reforms

fossil fuel subsidy reforms and their impacts on firms abstract while the potential adverse effects of fossil fuel subsidy reform are well documented for households the literature has largely ignored the effect of subsidy reform on firms competitiveness this paper discusses how firms are affected by and respond to energy price increases caused by subsidy reforms it highlights that cost increases both direct and indirect do not necessarily reflect competitiveness losses since firms have various ways to mitigate and pass on price shocks this paper presents and discusses direct and indirect transmission channels for price shocks and firms response measures absorbing cost shocks into profits inter fuel substitution increasing energy and material efficiency and passing on price increases it argues that further micro econometric studies using enterprise surveys are essential for quantifying the role of these mechanisms and for designing policy measures that ensure that competitiveness losses due to subsidy reforms are minimised

refined oil import subsidies removal in ghana a triple win abstract in this study claims and counterclaims that fossil fuel subsidies removal yields benefits in terms of budget deficits energy efficiency and mitigation are assessed in order to do this a global computable general equilibrium cge model has been estimated to evaluate the impact of subsidies removal on imported refined oil in ghana on prices carbon dioxide co 2 emissions households demand firm s production and real gdp the simulation experiment points to evidence that subsidy removal raises prices increases the rate of co 2 emissions reduces households demand reduces aggregate output and affects various sectors differently the increased rate of co 2 emissions due to the removal of subsidies is indicative of the existence of the so called green paradox these results underscore the fact that a removal of subsidies on fossil fuels may win in some regards but fail in others a general implication from the applied model therefore is one which supports the assertion that removal of subsidies on fossil fuels removal on energy should be implemented along with policies aimed at stimulating economic activities and reducing the level of co 2 emissions especially where there is evidence of the green paradox

who benefit most from fuel subsidies evidence from nigeria abstract the paper studies the benefit incidence of fuel subsidies in nigeria household sector combining annual subsidy estimates with the households expenditure data from the 2009 10 harmonized living standard survey we investigate how the benefits from fuel subsidies are accrued to each income groups in nigeria the results show that while the kerosene subsidy is more evenly distributed across income groups petrol subsidy is concentrated to high income groups in aggregate the top 20 households enjoy twice as much the benefit of fuel subsidies as the bottom 20 households we also examine the concentration and progressivity of fuel subsidies using gini coefficient measures and lorenz concentration curves and find both fuel subsidies are more regressive than the per capita expenditure

fossil fuel subsidy removal and inadequate public power supply implications for businesses abstract we briefly consider the impact of fossil fuel subsidy removal policies in the context of inadequate power supply with a focus on the implications for businesses in doing so we utilize the case of the early 2012 fuel subsidy removal in nigeria the rationale for such subsidy removal policies is typically informed by analysis showing that they lead to an economically inefficient allocation of resources and market distortions while often failing to meet intended objectives however often the realities of infrastructural and institutional deficiencies are not appropriately factored into the decision making process businesses in many developing countries already impaired by the high cost of power supply deficiencies become even less competitive on an unsubsidized basis we find that justifications for removal often do not adequately reflect the specific environments of developing country economies resulting in poor recommendations or ineffective policy

fossil fuel subsidies in the pacific island context analysis of the case of kiribati abstract kiribati is highly vulnerable to climate change induced sea level rise at the same time the country is also very dependent on fossil fuel imports kiribati uses price controls and tax exemptions to make fossil fuels more affordable for low income households this study reviews the subsidies on consumption of fossil fuels specifically gasoline diesel and household kerosene in kiribati and investigates their macroeconomic fiscal distributional and environmental impact the subsidies are quantified using price gap approach over a five year period the subsidies were on average aud 4 2 million when using 2011 2015 data with 2015 tax policies this is equivalent to 2 2 per cent of kiribati gdp over 2011 2014 the average fiscal impact would have been equivalent to 3 7 per cent of government revenues and 29 per cent of government health expenditure apart from being a fiscal burden the subsidies increase greenhouse gas emissions and make kiribati even more dependent on fossil fuel imports and more vulnerable to volatility in international fuel prices no evidence was found to support the argument for using the subsidies to support low income households in fact there are signs of considerable leakages to high income households which is consistent with findings from studies in other countries

the meaning and measurement of income mobility abstract income mobility may be seen as arising from two sources i the transfer of income among individuals with total income held constant and ii a change in the total amount of income available in this paper we propose several sensible properties defining the concept of income mobility and show that an easily applicable measure of mobility is uniquely implied by these properties we also show that the resulting measure is additively decomposable into the two sources listed above namely mobility due to the transfer of income within a given structure and mobility due to economic growth or contraction finally these results are compared and contrasted with other mobility concepts and measures in the literature journal of economic literature classification numbers d31 d63

reducing fuel subsidies and the implication on fiscal balance and poverty in indonesia a simulation analysis abstract there is an urgent need for phasing out fuel subsidies in indonesia due to a severe budget deficit and a worsening of income distribution fuel subsidies of which almost 72 are enjoyed by the 30 of the richest income groups have consumed on average 63 8 of the total subsidies between 1998 and 2013 this paper aims at evaluating the relationship between existing fuel subsidies and fiscal balance and at analysing the poverty impact of phasing out fuel subsidies applying a cge microsimulation this study found that removing 25 of fuel subsidies increases the incidence of poverty by 0 259 percentage points if this money were fully allocated to government spending the poverty incidence would decrease by 0 27 percentage points moreover the 100 removal of fuel subsidies and the reallocation of 50 of them to government spending transfers and other subsidies could decrease the incidence of poverty by 0 277 percentage points however these reallocation policies might not be effective in compensating for the adverse impacts of the 100 removal of fuel subsidies if economic agents try to seek profit through mark up pricing over the increase of production costs

determinants of oil price subsidies in oil and gas exporting countries abstract this paper investigates the implicit subsidization of refined products in oil and gas exporting countries most of these countries as well as some other countries mostly developing countries but one could argue that us gasoline prices do not account for external costs distribute large subsidies subsidies that are offered for a long period are not only inefficient but also dangerous due to gradual increases in the energy demand low domestic prices have led to immense oil demand growth that cannot continue if these countries wish to continue exporting only very high price jumps can stop this development but politically these price jumps are very costly if not suicidal for many governments indeed we argue that the currently low oil prices not only harm oil and gas exporting countries but also provide a unique opportunity to eliminate this costly subsidy policy at manageable political costs this paper begins with theoretical normative and positive explanations of low domestic energy prices and then addresses how to phase out subsidies again from a normative and positive perspective finally we empirically address the obstacles that individual countries may face when attempting to eliminate subsidies by quantifying the factors political economic and social that influence the existing subsidies

reducing subsidies on household fuels in india how will it affect the poor kerosene and lpg are widely used in households in india for lighting and cooking these fuels have historically been subsidized as part of the restructuring of the energy sector the government is committed to limiting these subsidies this paper examines the impact of reducing energy subsidies on the welfare of the poor the paper uses data from nationally representative surveys of over 100 000 households the paper concludes that the case for reducing lpg subsidies is strong although the kerosene subsidy is an inefficient means of subsidizing fuel use by the poor reduction in it will need to be supported by other policies that would limit the adverse impacts

incidence and impact the regional variation of poverty effects due to fossil fuel subsidy reform since fossil fuel subsidy reforms can induce significant distributional shifts and price shocks effective compensation and social protection programs are crucial based on the statistical simulation model by araar and verme 2012 this study estimates the regional variability of direct welfare effects of removing fuel subsidies in nigeria uncompensated subsidy removal is estimated to increase the national poverty rate by 3 4 on average however uniform cash compensation that appears effective at the national average is found to fail to mitigate price shocks in 16 of 37 states thus putting livelihoods and public support for reforms at risk states that are estimated to incur the largest welfare shocks coincide with hotspots of civil unrest following nigeria s 2012 subsidy reform attempt the study illustrates how regionally disaggregated compensation can be revenue neutral and maintain or reduce pre reform poverty rates in all states overall it highlights the importance of understanding differences in vulnerability and designing tailored social protection schemes which ensure public support for subsidy reforms

the unequal benefits of fuel subsidies a review of evidence for developing countries summary this paper reviews evidence on the impact of fuel subsidy reform on household welfare in developing countries on average the burden of subsidy reform is substantial and is approximately neutrally distributed across income groups a 0 25 decrease in the per liter subsidy results in a 5 decrease in income for all groups more than half of this impact arises from the indirect impact on prices of other goods and services consumed by households fuel subsidies are a costly approach to protecting the poor due to substantial benefit leakage to higher income groups in absolute terms the top income quintile captures six times more in subsidies than the bottom

impacts of removing fuel import subsidies in nigeria on poverty abstract the petroleum sector contributes substantially to the nigerian economy however the potential benefits are diminished due to the existence of significant subsidies on imports of petroleum products subsidies on imported petroleum products are considered to be an important instrument for keeping fuel prices and hence the cost of living low the costs of these subsidies however has risen dramatically in recent years due to increased volatility in world petroleum and petroleum product prices and increased illegal exportation of subsidized petroleum products into neighboring countries removing the subsidy on fuel is one of the most contentious socio economic policy issues in nigeria today in this paper an economy wide framework is used to identify the impact of removing the fuel subsidy on the nigerian economy and investigates how alternative policies might be used to meet socio economic objectives related to fuel subsidies the results show that while a reduction in the subsidy generally results in an increase in nigerian gdp it can have a detrimental impact on household income and in particular on poor households accompanying the subsidy reduction with income transfers aimed at poor households or domestic production of petroleum products can alleviate the negative impacts on household income

public members on occupational licensing boards effects on legislative regulatory reforms those concerned with the effects of occupational regulation have long argued the need for greater protection of consumer interests one area of concern is the domination of occupational licensing boards by practitioners of the licensed profession the professions were very successful in negotiating licensing statutes so that most if not all of the positions on licensing boards were allocated to members of the profession 10 this practice could encourage capture of the regulatory process by the regulated profession during the 1960s and 70s various state legislatures responded to this concern by requiring consumer representation on occupational licensing boards although this reform was widely adopted its effects are largely unknown existing research assessing the effects of public board membership is sparse limited to single states or professions schutz 36 identified no significant effects from increased public membership on california licensing boards on several board output measures this study however only encompassed the two years before and the two years after the increase in public membership given the difficulty in finding appointing and then training and orienting new public members it is not surprising that no effects were found in fact if past patterns regarding appointments prevailed it is likely that many of the public member seats remained vacant during the entire study period 38 moreover even if the public members were seated and oriented quickly it is likely that they would take some time to become acquainted with board roles and responsibilities before seeking significant reforms in the licensing process schneider 35 however found similar results in her study of the 1983 performance of missouri licensing boards she found no effects from public membership on four measures of board performance lammers 24 found that public members on boards regulating nursing home administrators affected only one regulatory policy the extensiveness of the agency s continuing we appreciate the cooperation and effort of many licensing board directors and staff members we especially want to thank ellen hume of the national clearinghouse on licensure enforcement and regulation for her assistance partial support for this research was provided by the university of southern california faculty research and innovation fund 1 the legislative empowerment act determines the composition of the boards the governor of each state is usually responsible for appointing members of occupational licensing boards although some states may require the governor

sustainable energy development in nigeria current status and policy options abstract sustainable energy development focuses on maintaining the provision of energy in a manner that can enhance the short medium and long term economic development of a country the provision of sustainable energy requires the development and implementation of technologies that can improve the energy situation of a given country such as renewable energy energy efficient technologies and the proper use of conventional energy resources to achieve this effective energy policy options must be instigated that can adjust to changing circumstances in nigeria the development of sustainable clean modern energy is an immense challenge as is the proper use of the country s conventional energy resources this is as due to the lack of effective support policies and poor participation by the government in clean energy development the energy situation in nigeria could be improved by the provision of adequate energy policy options designed to augment existing energy policies this study critically reviews the current status of energy resources in nigeria and the associated policies important policies unavailable under current government strategies are proposed and prioritised based on their likelihood of success in short medium and long term among the most important policies based on priorities are policies to address crude oil theft complete deregulation of the petroleum subsectors utilisation of associated gases creation of favourable business climate for private investors increase attraction for foreign direct investment in clean energy technology renewable portfolio standards development introduction of tendering schemes use of efficient fuel stoves development of demand side bidding and energy efficiency standard law we believe that these proposed policy options could improve the sustainable development of nigeria s energy resources

does inequality of labor earnings emerge in young days or later abstract this paper examines the evolution of labor earnings inequality in an environment where individuals learn about their own ability productivity from wage realizations it is shown that innate ability heterogeneity and idiosyncratic income shock variance have distinct effects on the emergence of earnings inequality through changes in learning speed and effort decisions therefore given endogenous changes in individual perception we are able to explain different patterns of labor earnings inequality evolution in differently endowed societies actually observed in uk us germany and japan simulations illustrate inequality emergence patterns and earnings mobility in different environments

distributional effects of reducing energy subsidies evidence from recent policy reform in argentina abstract we analyze the distributional effects of the reduction in energy subsidies in argentina since 2016 as the policy reform also includes the introduction of a scheme to protect less well off families social tariff we also review how well the targeting mechanism works we apply traditional benefit incidence analysis using household surveys and administrative data focusing on residential subsidies to piped natural gas and electricity in the buenos aires metropolitan area we find that the social tariff is relatively pro poor with significantly higher coverage among the poorest households there are some exclusion errors in the low income deciles and large inclusion errors in the medium and high income deciles the distributive incidence of subsidies does not appear to have changed substantially energy subsidies in argentina albeit lower in aggregate terms continue to be although progressive pro rich this is in large part due to the prevalence of the general flat subsidy rate mechanism over the social tariff mechanism regarding energy budget shares monthly spending on electricity has increased from 1 1 of total household income to 3 4 monthly spending on piped natural gas rose from 1 3 to 3 3 these shares are in line with many other countries in the region naturally there has been a convergence of tariffs towards service provision costs which becomes central in order to incentive sectoral investment and stimulate a good provision of services

the economic impact of subsidy phase out in oil exporting developing countries a case study of algeria iran and nigeria abstract one of the crucial issues of energy markets in oil exporting developing countries is the high level of subsidies on petroleum products and the low efficiency in energy use the purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of a subsidy phase out policy on the energy sector and oil revenues in three countries algeria iran and nigeria by using a standard econometric approach we find that the effects of different deregulation policies are substantial we also analyse the impact of a policy based on autonomous energy efficiency improvement finally a combination of both policies is elaborated and quantified our results show that a policy geared at more rational use of energy would permit these countries to save enough oil to meet future increases in demand while maintaining stable production capacity furthermore such an energy policy could result in additional oil revenues which would enhance their economic development

household welfare implications of fossil fuel subsidy reforms in developing countries abstract with over 200 countries reaching an agreement with the stated aim of restricting global warming to well below 2 c above pre industrial levels the most comprehensive climate change agreement was recently signed though most of the hard work lies ahead it marks an important first step for the collective global community to address climate change fossil fuels continue to remain one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and for many developing countries high levels fossil fuels continues to enable an overconsumption of fossil fuels given the sensitivity of governments to subsidy reforms this study examines the household welfare implications of the removal of fossil fuel subsidies it finds that while welfare implications are unambiguously positive for government the results are mixed for private households although in an overwhelming majority of cases the results are positive however even in the cases where the welfare implications are negative for private households we find that it is possible for governments to carry out the reforms in such a way as to be welfare improving to households incomes by compensating them with some of the fiscal savings gained from the subsidy reform

the welfare effects of unprecedented electricity price hikes in zambia abstract this paper simulates the real household expenditure effects of large electricity price increases in zambia first we find that electricity subsidies are highly regressive the richest household quintile receives over 60 of the subsidies while the poorest quintile receives less than 1 second our partial equilibrium simulations of the welfare effects of a 75 electricity price increase show that the poorest households would experience a 3 times larger percentage loss in real expenditure compared to the wealthiest households naturally these adverse effects lead to an increase in poverty however we find that transferring the fiscal savings realised from the complete elimination of electricity subsidies to the poor reduces extreme poverty significantly this budget neutral strategy is particularly attractive for zambia and other sub saharan economies currently battling the twin challenges of widening budget deficits and high extreme poverty

fossil fuel reform in developing states the case of trinidad and tobago a petroleum producing small island developing state abstract trinidad and tobago is an oil exporting small island developing state sids with a 0 12 contribution to global emissions and with important socio economic challenges it has producer electricity and transport fuel subsidies it is at an interesting juncture in subsidy reform the government faces the embeddedness of distributive justice norms that are contested by fiscal prudence and environmental stewardship norms the value of the paper is twofold first it develops a subsidy intractability framework to explain reform global narratives that highlights the power of agents the nature of contested economic justice and environmental norms and the availability of mechanisms for reform second this framework is used to explain reform narratives and trajectories in trinidad and tobago using data from public documents and from a unique elite survey of former and present heads of state politicians policy makers and stakeholders even in conditions of falling oil prices and national revenue and pressures to reduce emissions where redistributive justice arguments are heavily embedded in public discourses those aspects of the subsidy that have developmental or distributive justice goals are more intractable the results of the study have implications for carbon emission reduction strategies in developing states with fossil fuel reserves

energy price variation and competitiveness firm level evidence from indonesia abstract this paper uses firm survey data from the manufacturing and mining sectors in indonesia and investigates the extent to which energy prices affect competitiveness proxied by profitability persistent regional price differences due to indonesia s insular geography enable this study to show that energy prices have a small but statistically significant adverse long run effect on competitiveness though different energy types matter in different sectors by estimating cross and own price elasticities and uzawa allen partial elasticities of inter fuel substitution this study also shows that firms have the ability to respond to higher energy prices by adjusting their energy mix i e substituting certain energy goods for others moreover this study shows that firms also respond to higher energy prices by increasing energy efficiency and by passing on costs to end users nevertheless these response measures are not sufficient to fully mitigate the adverse effect of energy prices on firms based on these results policy recommendations are offered which are of immediate relevance for the design of energy pricing reforms

earnings distribution and inequality over time education versus relative position and cohort this paper constructs a theoretical model for analyzing the earnings distribution over time and provides an estimation procedure for the inequality of earnings over time the theoretical model incorporates gibrat s so called law of proportionate effect galton s regression toward the mean and serial correlation of the error terms under the condition that the density function of earnings for each age cohort in japan is distributed as log logistic an emphasis is placed upon comparison of the influence of the relative position in the distribution with the influence of education on earnings finally the coefficients of variation over time are presented copyright 1991 by economics department of the university of pennsylvania and the osaka university institute of social and economic research association

measuring social mobility as unpredictability by associating mobility with the unpredictability of social states new measures of social mobility may be constructed we propose a family of three state by state and aggregate scalar predictability measures the first set of measures is based on the transition matrix the second uses a sampling approach and permits statistical testing of the hypothesis of perfect mobility providing a new justification for the use of the x2 statistic the third satisfies the demanding criterion of period consistency an empirical example demonstrates the usefulness of the new measures to complement existing ones in the literature