Gasim, Anwar A;
Agnolucci, Paolo;
Ekins, Paul;
(2025)
Lessons from an International Review of Successful and Unsuccessful Consumer Energy Subsidy Reforms.
The Energy Journal
10.1177/01956574251395630.
(In press).
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Abstract
This paper examines the determinants of successful energy subsidy reforms by synthesizing lessons from the literature and elaborating them through an analysis of an original dataset comprising 417 reform attempts and their outcomes. We synthesize six lessons that governments should follow for a successful outcome: (1) preparing a comprehensive strategy, (2) ensuring appropriate timing, (3) communicating effectively, (4) implementing reforms gradually, (5) launching compensatory measures, and (6) moving toward deregulated and depoliticized pricing. Our analysis both validates these lessons and highlights their nuances, showing, for example, that gasoline price hikes above 50% appear to double the occurrence of unsuccessful outcomes. The analysis also provides actionable guidance for policymakers. For example, we show how a failed first attempt makes future reform more challenging, and we discuss how a government can implement partial reversals in response to protests to keep part of the benefits of reform while demonstrating its willingness to compromise.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Lessons from an International Review of Successful and Unsuccessful Consumer Energy Subsidy Reforms |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1177/01956574251395630 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1177/01956574251395630 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). |
| Keywords: | Energy subsidy reform, energy price reform, fossil fuel subsidy reform, fuel riots, fuel protests, energy pricing policy |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > Bartlett School Env, Energy and Resources |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10219337 |
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