the Institute of Development Studies and partner organisations
Browse
- No file added yet -

Fuel Subsidy Reform and the Social Contract in Nigeria: a Micro-economic Analysis

Download (248.83 kB)
report
posted on 2024-09-05, 21:23 authored by Neil McCulloch, Tom Moerenhout, Joonseok Yang
Fuel subsidies in Nigeria are enormous. At last estimate, the state subsidises gasoline to the tune of USD 3.9 billion — almost double the entire health budget. Subsidies exist because the government fixes the price of gasoline for consumers below the international price and uses government resources to pay for the difference. They were first introduced in Nigeria in the 1970s as a response to the oil price shock in 1973. However, despite numerous attempts at reform, Nigeria has never successfully removed gasoline subsidies, in large part due to strong popular opposition to reform. Summary of ICTD Working Paper 104 by Neil McCulloch,Tom Moerenhout and Joonseok Yang. Such subsidies come at great cost: spending on other development objectives is lower; the distribution of resources to the state governments is reduced; the vast majority of the subsidy goes to better off Nigerians; and cheaper gasoline encourages greater pollution, congestion and climate change. Despite this, our survey indicates that 70 per cent of Nigerians oppose the reduction or removal of subsidies.

History

Publisher

Institute of Development Studies

Citation

McCulloch, N; Moerenhout, T. and Yang, J. (2020) Fuel Subsidy Reform and the Social Contract in Nigeria: a Micro-economic Analysis, ICTD Research in Brief 51, Brighton, IDS

Series

ICTD Research in Brief 51

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

IDS Item Types

Series paper (non-IDS)

Copyright holder

Institute of Development Studies 2020

Country

Nigeria

Language

en

IDS team

Governance

Usage metrics

    International Centre for Tax and Development

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC