Suchergebnisse

Acknowledgements -- Contents -- About the Editors -- Abbreviations -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- List of Boxes -- Overview -- Background and Motivation for the Book -- Structure of the Book -- Products Considered -- Data Overview -- Summary of Simulations -- SUBSIM as an Analytical Tool -- Cross-Country Analyses -- 1 Subsidy Reforms in the Middle East and North Africa Region: A Review -- Introduction -- A Brief History of Subsidies -- What Triggered Reforms? -- Who Reformed, When, How, and Why? -- Islamic Republic of Iran: December 18, 2010 -- Yemen: 2010-2014 -- Jordan: November 13, 2012 -- Arab Republic of Egypt: July 5, 2014 -- Morocco: September 16, 2013-October 1, 2014 -- Tunisia: 2012-14 -- Policy Options -- Radical Versus Gradualist Approach -- Compensation Versus Noncompensation -- Public Information Versus No Information -- Piecemeal Versus Wholesale Reforms -- Poor Versus Middle Class -- Energy Versus Food Subsidies Reforms -- Direct Versus Indirect Effects -- Political Timing of Reforms -- Unfinished Business -- A Success Story? -- What Next? -- Acknowledgements -- Appendix -- References -- 2 A Comparative Analysis of Subsidies and Subsidy Reforms in the Middle East and North Africa Region -- Introduction -- Data and Analytical Approach -- Microdata -- Baseline Prices and Subsidies -- A Distributional Analysis of Subsidies -- The Absolute Importance and Distribution of Subsidies -- The Relative Importance and Distribution of Subsidies -- A Policy Dilemma -- Simulations of Subsidies Reforms -- Welfare -- Inequality -- Government Budget -- Conclusion -- Acknowledgements -- Annex 2.1 -- Annex 2.2 -- References -- Country Case Studies -- 3 An Evaluation of the 2014 Subsidy Reforms in Morocco and a Simulation of Further Reforms -- Introduction -- The Evolution of Subsidies -- Petroleum Products -- Sugar and Cooking Oil

Forced displacement -- defined as the displacement of refugees and internally displaced persons due to violence -- has reached an unprecedented scale and global attention during the past few years, particularly in the aftermath of the Syrian refugee crisis in 2011 and the European Union's migration crisis in 2015. As this plight gained momentum, economics found itself unprepared to answer the basic questions surrounding refugees and internally displaced persons. Few economists or institutions were working on forced displacement. Economic theory or empirics had little to offer in articles published in journals. Data were scarce, unreliable, or inaccessible. Can economics rise to the challenge? Is the economics of forced displacement different from neoclassical economics? Can off-the-shelves models be used to study forced displaced populations? What is missing to do the economics of forced displacement? What are the data constraints that limit economists in this work? This paper provides a first nontechnical introduction to these topics. The paper argues that the modeling of utility, choice, risk, and information in a short-term setting is the key to address the problem. Neoclassical economics lacks some of the theoretical ingredients that are needed, but recent developments in game theory, neuroeconomics, and behavioral economics have opened new horizons that make the task of modeling forced displacement within reach. Empirics is clearly limited by the scarcity of quality data, but an example shows how welfare economists can start working with existing data. Economists have no excuse to maintain the status quo and should get on with the work on forced displacement.

The paper takes stock of eight country studies and a cross-country analysis to review the experience with subsidy reforms in the Middle East and North Africa region between 2010 and 2014. This unprecedented period of subsidy reforms occurred during a period of extraordinary political changes, which makes this particular experience unique. The paper reviews the facts and the different paths to reforms taken by different countries faced with different challenges, and discusses the pros and cons of alternative policy options. It concludes with an assessment of the experiences and a discussion on future prospects.

"Growth is good for the poor" is a ubiquitous statement and one generally backed by theory, research and history. In the long-run, growth reduces poverty. Yet, growth in output - per se - is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for poverty reduction in the short-term. The paper uses a number of parametric and non-parametric methodologies to assess the relation between growth and poverty in Kazakhstan, a country that experienced rapid growth and poverty reduction in the short-term. Combining macro and micro regional data, we find a very small trickle down effect of output growth on household incomes and no evidence that output growth is correlated with poverty reduction. We find instead that pro-poor growth in household income explains well poverty reduction.

How do people value freedom of choice? Drawing on economics and psychology the paper provides an hypothesis and empirical evidence on how individuals may value freedom of choice and derive utility from it. It is argued that the degree of perceived control that individuals have over choice - a construct known as the locus of control in psychology - regulates how we value freedom of choice. People who believe that the outcome of their actions depends on internal factors such as effort and skills (the 'internals') have a greater appreciation of freedom of choice than people who believe hat the outcome of their actions depends on external factors such as fate or destiny (the 'externals'). We find some evidence in support of this hypothesis using a combination of all rounds of the World and European Values Surveys. A variable that measures freedom of choice and the locus of control is found to predict life satisfaction better than any other known factor such as health, employment, income, marriage or religion, across countries and within countries. We show that this variable is not a proxy of happiness and measures well both freedom of choice and the locus of control. 'Internals' are found to appreciate freedom of choice more than 'externals' and to be happier. These findings have important implications for individual utility, social welfare and public policies.