Fiscal and Welfare Impacts of Electricity Subsidies in Central America

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Publisher : World Bank Publications
ISBN 13 : 1464811059
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (648 download)

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Book Synopsis Fiscal and Welfare Impacts of Electricity Subsidies in Central America by : Marco Antonio Hernández Oré

Download or read book Fiscal and Welfare Impacts of Electricity Subsidies in Central America written by Marco Antonio Hernández Oré and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2017-10-23 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Central American countries spend approximately one percent of their aggregate gross domestic product subsidizing residential electricity consumption. This amount is comparable with what these countries spend on education and social assistance. The pressure that electricity subsidies exert on government budgets is particularly high when international energy prices rise. Electricity subsidies also provide perverse incentives for the overconsumption of electricity as households do not pay the true cost of their consumption, which in turn reduces incentives to increase energy efficiency. This book answers key questions regarding residential electricity subsidies in Central America. In particular: How do the subsidy mechanisms function in each country? What are their fiscal costs? Are these subsidies good value for the money? How efficient are subsidies in reaching households in need, and what drives this efficiency? What are the reform options? The main message of this book is that there is considerable scope for improving the efficiency of electricity subsidies in Central America by better targeting them to low-income households. The book shows that electricity subsidies help reduce the burden of electricity costs on the lowest-income groups. However, the existing electricity subsidy schemes are very inefficient at targeting resources to low-income households, with the majority of government spending going to higher-income households. Indeed, most countries in the region have the opportunity to significantly reduce the fiscal costs of electricity subsidies without imposing significant costs on households, particularly poor households. Given the limited fiscal space in the region and the major needs of the countries in terms of social services and physical infrastructure, this study seeks to provide Central American policymakers with the analytical foundations necessary to assess the costs and benefits of their electricity subsidy mechanisms, and design effective reform strategies that reflect their unique circumstances and policy priorities.

Energy Subsidies in Latin America and the Caribbean

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Author :
Publisher : International Monetary Fund
ISBN 13 : 1484365364
Total Pages : 79 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (843 download)

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Book Synopsis Energy Subsidies in Latin America and the Caribbean by : Mr.Gabriel Di Bella

Download or read book Energy Subsidies in Latin America and the Caribbean written by Mr.Gabriel Di Bella and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2015-02-12 with total page 79 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The oil price decline creates an opportunity to dismantle energy subsidies, which escalated with high oil prices. This paper assesses energy subsidies in Latin America and the Caribbean—about 1.8 percent of GDP in 2011–13 (approximately evenly split between fuel and electricity), and about 3.8 percent of GDP including negative externalities. Countries with poorer institutions subsidize more. Energy-rich countries subsidize fuel more, but low-income countries are more likely to subsidize electricity, as are Central America and the Caribbean. Energy subsidies impose fiscal costs, hurting SOEs, competitiveness, and distribution. The paper overviews country experience with subsidy reform, drawing lessons.

Energy Pricing Policies for Inclusive Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean

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Publisher : World Bank Publications
ISBN 13 : 1464811121
Total Pages : 230 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (648 download)

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Book Synopsis Energy Pricing Policies for Inclusive Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean by : Guillermo Beylis

Download or read book Energy Pricing Policies for Inclusive Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean written by Guillermo Beylis and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2017-10-02 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Government strategies for setting energy prices are not uniform across the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region—or even across fuels. Instead, they cover a full spectrum, ranging from discretionary price-fixing at one end to pure market-based approaches at the other. In between is a wide variety of other schemes such as price stabilization funds, import or export parity pricing, price smoothing through tax levels, and targeted direct price subsidies or vouchers. Governments in the LAC region, however, tend to be small as measured by government revenues as a percentage of GDP. So their limited government resources have to be used wisely and be better targeted to the poor and vulnerable. Although energy subsidies are an inefficient policy tool for protecting the welfare of the poor, energy price increases can have a big impact on these households. Energy Pricing Policies for Inclusive Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean finds that energy subsidies are highly regressive in an absolute sense—that is, the lion’s share of every dollar spent on keeping energy prices low benefits wealthier households. However, subsidies for fuels that are widely used for cooking and heating—liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), natural gas, and kerosene—as well as for electricity, can be relatively neutral or progressive, implying that lower-income households capture benefits that are proportionate to their expenditures. In other words, although poorer households receive very little from every dollar spent on energy subsidies, that small amount may represent an important share of their expenditures. It is important, then, that governments expand the coverage and depth of their social safety nets to provide relief for poor households if energy prices rise. This report also finds that aggregate price impacts and the competitiveness effects of energy price increases are moderate to small and can be smoothed out through macropolicy responses.

Case Studies on Energy Subsidy Reform—Lessons and Implications - Supplement

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Publisher : International Monetary Fund
ISBN 13 : 149834240X
Total Pages : 119 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (983 download)

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Book Synopsis Case Studies on Energy Subsidy Reform—Lessons and Implications - Supplement by : International Monetary Fund. Fiscal Affairs Dept.

Download or read book Case Studies on Energy Subsidy Reform—Lessons and Implications - Supplement written by International Monetary Fund. Fiscal Affairs Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2013-01-28 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This supplement presents country case studies reviewing energy subsidy reform experiences, which are the basis for the reform lessons identified in the main paper. The selection of countries for the case studies reflects the availability of data and of previously documented evidence on country-specific reforms. The 22 country case studies were also chosen to provide cases from all regions and a mix of outcomes from reform. The studies cover 19 countries, including seven from sub-Saharan Africa, two in developing Asia, three in the Middle East and North Africa, four in Latin America and the Caribbean, and three in Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS. The case studies are organized by energy product, with 14 studies of the reform of petroleum product subsidies, seven studies of the reform of electricity subsidies, and a case study of subsidy reform for coal. The larger number of studies on fuel subsidies reflects the wider availability of data and past studies for these reforms. The structure of each case study is similar, with each one providing the context of the reform and a description of the reforms; discussion of the impact of the reform on energy prices or subsidies and its success or failure; mitigating measures that were implemented in an attempt to generate public support for the reform and offset adverse effects on the poor; and, finally, identification of lessons for designing reforms.

The Unequal Benefits of Fuel Subsidies

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Publisher : International Monetary Fund
ISBN 13 : 145520532X
Total Pages : 25 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (552 download)

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Book Synopsis The Unequal Benefits of Fuel Subsidies by : Mr.David Coady

Download or read book The Unequal Benefits of Fuel Subsidies written by Mr.David Coady and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2010-09-01 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 neutrally distributed across income groups; a $0.25 decrease in the per liter subsidy results in a 6 percent 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. Issues that need to be addressed when undertaking subsidy reform are also discussed, including the need for a new approach to fuel pricing in many countries.

The Unequal Benefits of Fuel Subsidies Revisited

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Publisher : International Monetary Fund
ISBN 13 : 1513576348
Total Pages : 25 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (135 download)

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Book Synopsis The Unequal Benefits of Fuel Subsidies Revisited by : Mr.David Coady

Download or read book The Unequal Benefits of Fuel Subsidies Revisited written by Mr.David Coady and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2015-11-25 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Still Not Getting Energy Prices Right: A Global and Country Update of Fossil Fuel Subsidies

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Publisher : International Monetary Fund
ISBN 13 : 1513595407
Total Pages : 42 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (135 download)

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Book Synopsis Still Not Getting Energy Prices Right: A Global and Country Update of Fossil Fuel Subsidies by : Ian Parry

Download or read book Still Not Getting Energy Prices Right: A Global and Country Update of Fossil Fuel Subsidies written by Ian Parry and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2021-09-24 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper provides a comprehensive global, regional, and country-level update of: (i) efficient fossil fuel prices to reflect their full private and social costs; and (ii) subsidies implied by mispricing fuels. The methodology improves over previous IMF analyses through more sophisticated estimation of costs and impacts of reform. Globally, fossil fuel subsidies were $5.9 trillion in 2020 or about 6.8 percent of GDP, and are expected to rise to 7.4 percent of GDP in 2025. Just 8 percent of the 2020 subsidy reflects undercharging for supply costs (explicit subsidies) and 92 percent for undercharging for environmental costs and foregone consumption taxes (implicit subsidies). Efficient fuel pricing in 2025 would reduce global carbon dioxide emissions 36 percent below baseline levels, which is in line with keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees, while raising revenues worth 3.8 percent of global GDP and preventing 0.9 million local air pollution deaths. Accompanying spreadsheets provide detailed results for 191 countries.

Energy Subsidies in Latin America and the Caribbean

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 79 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (97 download)

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Book Synopsis Energy Subsidies in Latin America and the Caribbean by : Gabriel Di Bella

Download or read book Energy Subsidies in Latin America and the Caribbean written by Gabriel Di Bella and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 79 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Energy Subsidy Reform

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Publisher : International Monetary Fund
ISBN 13 : 1484339169
Total Pages : 194 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (843 download)

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Book Synopsis Energy Subsidy Reform by : Mr. Benedict J. Clements

Download or read book Energy Subsidy Reform written by Mr. Benedict J. Clements and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2013-09-13 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Energy subsidies have wide-ranging economic consequences. Although they are aimed at protecting consumers, subsidies aggravate fiscal imbalances, crowd out priority public spending, and depress private investment, including in the energy sector. Subsidies also distort resource allocation by encouraging excessive energy consumption, artificially promoting capital-intensive industries, reducing incentives for investment in renewable energy, and accelerating the depletion of natural resources. Most subsidy benefits are captured by higher-income households, reinforcing inequality. Even future generations are affected through the damaging effects of increased energy consumption on global warming. This book provides (1) the most comprehensive estimates of energy subsidies currently available for 176 countries and (2) 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.

Energy Subsidy Reform in Sub-Saharan Africa

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Publisher : International Monetary Fund
ISBN 13 : 1484366549
Total Pages : 125 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (843 download)

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Book Synopsis Energy Subsidy Reform in Sub-Saharan Africa by : Mr.Trevor Serge Coleridge Alleyne

Download or read book Energy Subsidy Reform in Sub-Saharan Africa written by Mr.Trevor Serge Coleridge Alleyne and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2013-08-12 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

The Political Economy of Energy Subsidy Reform

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Publisher : World Bank Publications
ISBN 13 : 1464810087
Total Pages : 270 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (648 download)

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Book Synopsis The Political Economy of Energy Subsidy Reform by : Gabriela Inchauste

Download or read book The Political Economy of Energy Subsidy Reform written by Gabriela Inchauste and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2017-03-22 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book proposes a simple framework for understanding the political economy of subsidy reform and applies it to four in-depth country studies covering more than 30 distinct episodes of reform. Five key lessons emerge. First, energy subsidies often follow a life cycle, beginning as a way to stabilize prices and reduce exposure to price volatility for low-income consumers. However, as they grow in size and political power, they become entrenched. Second, subsidy reform strategies vary because the underlying political economy problems vary. When benefits are concentrated, satisfying (or isolating) interest groups with alternative policies is an important condition for effective reform. When benefits are diffuse, it can be much harder to identify and manage the political coalition needed for reform. Third, governments vary in their administrative and political capacities to implement difficult energy subsidy reforms. Fourth, improvements in social protection systems are often critical to the success of reforms because they make it possible to target assistance to those most in need. Finally, the most interesting cases involve governments that take a strategic approach to the challenges of political economy. In these settings, fixing energy subsidies is central to the governments’ missions of retaining political power and reorganizing how the government delivers benefits to the population. These cases are examples of “reform engineering,†? where governments actively seek to create the capacity to implement alternative policies, depoliticize tariffs, and build credibility around alternative policies. The most successful reforms involve active efforts by policy leaders to identify the political forces supporting energy subsidies and redirect or inoculate them.

Problem-Driven Political Economy Analysis

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Publisher : World Bank Publications
ISBN 13 : 1464801223
Total Pages : 286 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (648 download)

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Book Synopsis Problem-Driven Political Economy Analysis by : Verena Fritz

Download or read book Problem-Driven Political Economy Analysis written by Verena Fritz and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2014-01-13 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents eight good practice examples of problem-driven political economy analysis conducted at the World Bank, and reflect what the Bank has so far been able to achieve in mainstreaming this approach into its operations and policy dialogue.

Subsidy Reform in the Middle East and North Africa

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Publisher : International Monetary Fund
ISBN 13 : 1498348467
Total Pages : 130 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (983 download)

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Book Synopsis Subsidy Reform in the Middle East and North Africa by : Mr.Carlo A. Sdralevich

Download or read book Subsidy Reform in the Middle East and North Africa written by Mr.Carlo A. Sdralevich and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2014-07-09 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Implementing Energy Subsidy Reforms

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Publisher : World Bank Publications
ISBN 13 : 0821395629
Total Pages : 348 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (213 download)

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Book Synopsis Implementing Energy Subsidy Reforms by : Maria Vagliasindi

Download or read book Implementing Energy Subsidy Reforms written by Maria Vagliasindi and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2012-11-01 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poorly implemented energy subsidies are economically costly to taxpayers and damage the environment. This book aims to provide lessons from a sample of twenty case studies to help policymakers address implementation challenges and overcome political economy and affordability constraints.

Water, Electricity, and the Poor

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Publisher : World Bank Publications
ISBN 13 : 9780821363423
Total Pages : 308 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (634 download)

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Book Synopsis Water, Electricity, and the Poor by : Kristin Komives

Download or read book Water, Electricity, and the Poor written by Kristin Komives and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2005 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book reviews the prevalence and variants of consumer subsidies found in the developing world and the effectiveness of these subsidies for the poor. It places consumer subsidies in a broader social protection framework and compares them with poverty-focused programmes in other sectors using a common metric. It concludes that the most common subsidy instruments perform poorly in comparison with most other transfer mechanisms. Alternative consumption and connection subsidy mechanisms show more promise, especially when combined with complementary non-price approaches to making utility services accessible and affordable to poor households. The many factors contributing to those outcomes are dissected, identifying those that can be controlled and used to improve performance.

How Do Households Consume Energy?: Evidence from Latin American and Caribbean Countries

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Author :
Publisher : Inter-American Development Bank
ISBN 13 : 1597823120
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (978 download)

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Book Synopsis How Do Households Consume Energy?: Evidence from Latin American and Caribbean Countries by : Raul Jimenez Mori

Download or read book How Do Households Consume Energy?: Evidence from Latin American and Caribbean Countries written by Raul Jimenez Mori and published by Inter-American Development Bank. This book was released on 2020-11-22 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do households consume and spend on energy? What are the drivers of their spending and consumption patterns? How does energy consumption has evolved? What is to be expected as the region climbs the development ladder? What are the distributive implications of different energy pricing approaches? This book looks at these questions and examines which policies work in reducing energy poverty and increasing energy savings. The authors unveil the growing household demand of better quality of energy and show that to achieve more cost-effective and progressive public policies, it is necessary to strengthen the transparency and sustainability of energy pricing while having into account the consumer behavioral responses. This volume is a resource for designing energy policies based on an empirical understanding of the household’s energy needs.

Rethinking Infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean

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Publisher : World Bank Publications
ISBN 13 : 1464811024
Total Pages : 134 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (648 download)

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Book Synopsis Rethinking Infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean by : Marianne Fay

Download or read book Rethinking Infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean written by Marianne Fay and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2017-08-02 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) does not have the infrastructure it needs, or deserves, given its income. Many argue that the solution is to spend more; by contrast, this report has one main message: Latin America can dramatically narrow its infrastructure service gap by spending efficiently on the right things. This report asks three questions: what should LAC countries’ goals be? How can these goals be achieved as cost-effectively as possible? And who should pay to reach these goals? In doing so, we drop the ‘infrastructure gap’ notion, favoring an approach built on identifying the ‘service gap’. Benchmarking Latin America in this way reveals clear strengths and weaknesses. Access to water and electricity is good, with the potential for the region’s electricity sector to drive competitive advantage; by contrast, transport and sanitation should be key focus areas for further development. The report also identifies and analyses some of the emerging challenges for the region—climate change, increased demand and urbanization—that will put increasing pressure on infrastructure and policy makers alike. Improving the region’s infrastructure performance in the context of tight fiscal space will require spending better on well identified priorities. Unlike most infrastructure diagnostics, this report argues that much of what is needed lies outside the infrastructure sector †“ in the form of broader government issues—from competition policy, to budgeting rules that no longer solely focus on controlling cash expenditures. We also find that traditional recommendations continue to apply regarding independent, well-performing regulators and better corporate governance, and highlight the critical importance of cost recovery where feasible and desirable, as the basis for future commercial finance of infrastructure services. Latin America has the means and potential to do better; and it can do so by spending more efficiently on the right things.