The political economy of food subsidy reform in Egypt

Egypt has a large food subsidy program that has created a relatively effective social safety net, but it has also drained budgetary resources and proved to be poorly targeted toward the poor. Discussions about reforming the system to improve its effectiveness have run into extreme political sensitiv...

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Autor principal: Gutner, Tamar
Formato: Artículo preliminar
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: International Food Policy Research Institute 1999
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/161354
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author Gutner, Tamar
author_browse Gutner, Tamar
author_facet Gutner, Tamar
author_sort Gutner, Tamar
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Egypt has a large food subsidy program that has created a relatively effective social safety net, but it has also drained budgetary resources and proved to be poorly targeted toward the poor. Discussions about reforming the system to improve its effectiveness have run into extreme political sensitivities surrounding the issue of food subsidies. Egypt, therefore, well illustrates the quandaries that policymakers and others contemplating food subsidy reform face in developing countries. This study examines the political economy of food subsidy reform in Egypt and discusses the economic and political advantages and disadvantages of nine possible reforms. The study concludes that the reforms that have the greatest chance of success are those that reduce the access of the wealthy while increasing the access of the truly needy, but the timing, sequence, and trade-offs of such reforms have to be taken into account before they are implemented.
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spelling CGSpace1613542025-11-06T06:24:51Z The political economy of food subsidy reform in Egypt Gutner, Tamar subsidies welfare economics Egypt has a large food subsidy program that has created a relatively effective social safety net, but it has also drained budgetary resources and proved to be poorly targeted toward the poor. Discussions about reforming the system to improve its effectiveness have run into extreme political sensitivities surrounding the issue of food subsidies. Egypt, therefore, well illustrates the quandaries that policymakers and others contemplating food subsidy reform face in developing countries. This study examines the political economy of food subsidy reform in Egypt and discusses the economic and political advantages and disadvantages of nine possible reforms. The study concludes that the reforms that have the greatest chance of success are those that reduce the access of the wealthy while increasing the access of the truly needy, but the timing, sequence, and trade-offs of such reforms have to be taken into account before they are implemented. 1999 2024-11-21T09:55:07Z 2024-11-21T09:55:07Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/161354 en Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Gutner, Tamar. 1999. The political economy of food subsidy reform in Egypt. FCND Discussion Paper 77. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/161354
spellingShingle subsidies
welfare economics
Gutner, Tamar
The political economy of food subsidy reform in Egypt
title The political economy of food subsidy reform in Egypt
title_full The political economy of food subsidy reform in Egypt
title_fullStr The political economy of food subsidy reform in Egypt
title_full_unstemmed The political economy of food subsidy reform in Egypt
title_short The political economy of food subsidy reform in Egypt
title_sort political economy of food subsidy reform in egypt
topic subsidies
welfare economics
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/161354
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