SOAS Research Online

A Free Database of the Latest Research by SOAS Academics and PhD Students

[skip to content]

Fattouh, Bassam and El-Katiri, Laura (2013) 'Energy subsidies in the Middle East and North Africa.' Energy Strategy Reviews, 2 (1). pp. 108-115.

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

The policy of maintaining tight control of domestic energy prices has been widely spread in the Middle East and North Africa. Energy subsidies that keep domestic energy prices below market prices serve as a strategic tool to promote industrialization and diversification, to protect the income of citizens, and to distribute state benefits to the population. However, whilst they may be seen as achieving some of these objectives, this paper argues they do so in a costly and highly inefficient way. Energy subsidies distort price signals and lead to a systemic misallocation of resources. They also tend to be regressive, and the mounting fiscal burden they cause makes them increasingly unsustainable from a budgetary point of view. For this reason, a reform of energy pricing is in many MENA countries increasingly unavoidable e despite being a politically and economically delicate task. The diversity of MENA suggests that no single reform agenda will fit all countries in the region equally.

Item Type: Journal Article
Keywords: energy subsidies, Middle East, North Africa, energy pricing
SOAS Departments & Centres: Legacy Departments > Faculty of Law and Social Sciences > School of Finance and Management > Centre for Financial and Management Studies (CeFiMS)
Legacy Departments > Faculty of Law and Social Sciences > Department of Politics and International Studies > Centre on the Politics of Energy Security (CEPES)
ISSN: 2211467X
Copyright Statement: Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
DOI (Digital Object Identifier): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esr.2012.11.004
Date Deposited: 21 Jun 2013 08:58
URI: https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/16675
Related URLs: http://www.scie ... al/2211467X/2/1 (Publisher URL)

Altmetric Data

Statistics

Download activity - last 12 monthsShow export options
Downloads since deposit
6 month trend
0Downloads
6 month trend
521Hits
Accesses by country - last 12 monthsShow export options
Accesses by referrer - last 12 monthsShow export options

Repository staff only

Edit Item Edit Item