Smart Subsidy? : Welfare and Distributional Implications of Malawi’s FISP

Jacoby, Hanan

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: Farmer Input Subsidy Program;    FISP;    agricultural productivity;    poor farmers;    fertilizers;   

RP-ID  :  107177

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

It is often argued that subsidizing fertilizer and other inputs is desirable both to boost agriculturalproduction and to help poor farmers. This analysis of Malawi’s huge Farmer Input Subsidy Programhighlights a tension between these two objectives: The more FISP increases fertilizer use and therebyraises output, the greater the distortion and hence the lower the welfare gains from the program.Indeed, the empirical results indicate that up to 59% of every Kwacha spent on the FISP is wasted, in thesense that the fertilizer is not sufficiently valued by the beneficiaries. Cashing out the program is shownto have desirable distributional implications.