Which of the following do you think is the most important need in developing countries? Free health services for all to reduce child and maternal mortality Universal and decent quality education to provide children with the skills for productive jobs Cheap petrol and electricity Unless you

Energy subsidies are often a major drain on the resources of developing countries. Energy subsidies are inefficient, and lead to overconsumption of fossil fuels—reducing the incentive to use cleaner energy sources, and thereby increasing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. They also rarely provi

Nancy Birdsall and Anna Diofasi RELATED EXPERTS Anna Diofasi Former Policy Analyst Nancy Birdsall Senior Fellow, President Emeritus For at least five years the IMF has been badgering its members about implicit and explicit subsidies on energy. Itsmost recent salvopoints to enormous potential g

The adverse effects of energy subsidies have been widely documented. While recent decreases in international oil prices have provided a welcome respite, past experience has highlighted the need for caution. This column argues that to make this respite a permanent gain will require the removal of gov

Energy Subsidy Reform Facility (ESRF) has been at the forefront of knowledge creation and dissemination on the topic of energy subsidies. ESRF provided over US$14 million of World Bank-executed Technical Assistance (TA) grants to support energy subsidy reforms in over 70 countries, that resulted in

General Energy Subsidy Reform Facility: Generates Knowledge to Support Governments to Design and Implement Sustainable Energy Subsidy Reforms while Safeguarding the Welfare of the Poor(2020). This article provides a general overview of energy subsidies. It doesn’t really have any evidence. Ending