A Comparative Analysis of Subsidy Reforms in the Middle East and North Africa Region

Araar, Abdelkrim ; Verme, Paolo

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: energy subsidies;    food subsidies;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7755
RP-ID  :  WPS7755

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The paper compares the distribution ofenergy and food subsidies across households and the impactof subsidy reforms on household welfare in the Middle Eastand North Africa region. The analysis uses a unified modeland harmonized household data. The results show that thedistribution of subsidies and the welfare effects of subsidyreforms are quite diverse across countries and products.Energy subsidies tend to be pro-rich in terms of absoluteamounts, but tend to be more important for the poor in termsof expenditure shares. Instead, food subsidies are largerfor the poor in absolute and relative terms. These findingsdo not apply everywhere, and the scale of these phenomenaare different across countries and products. The welfareeffect of a 30 percent reduction in subsidies can beimportant, especially considering the cumulated effectacross products, but the cost of compensating the loss inwelfare for the poor is generally low compared with thebudget benefits of decreasing subsidies.