LEADER 03467oam 22004695 450 001 9910818114803321 005 20180808135441.0 024 7 $a10.1596/978-1-4648-1111-1 035 $a(CKB)4100000000771633 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC5049773 035 $a(The World Bank)211111 035 $a(US-djbf)211111 035 $a(EXLCZ)994100000000771633 100 $a20020129d2017 uf 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcn||||||||| 181 $ctxt$2rdacontent 182 $cc$2rdamedia 183 $acr$2rdacarrier 200 10$aEnergy Pricing Policies for Inclusive Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean /$fGuillermo Beylis 210 1$aWashington, D.C. :$cThe World Bank,$d2017. 215 $a1 online resource (230 pages) 225 1 $aDirections in Development;Directions in Development - Energy and Mining 311 $a1-4648-1111-3 311 $a1-4648-1112-1 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references at the end of each chapters. 330 3 $aGovernment strategies for setting energy prices are not uniform across the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region or even across fuels. Instead, they cover a full spectrum, ranging from discretionary price-fixing at one end to pure market-based approaches at the other. In between is a wide variety of other schemes such as price stabilization funds, import or export parity pricing, price smoothing through tax levels, and targeted direct price subsidies or vouchers. Governments in the LAC region, however, tend to be small as measured by government revenues as a percentage of GDP. So their limited government resources have to be used wisely and be better targeted to the poor and vulnerable. Although energy subsidies are an inefficient policy tool for protecting the welfare of the poor, energy price increases can have a big impact on these households. Energy Pricing Policies for Inclusive Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean finds that energy subsidies are highly regressive in an absolute sense that is, the lion's share of every dollar spent on keeping energy prices low benefits wealthier households. However, subsidies for fuels that are widely used for cooking and heating liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), natural gas, and kerosene as well as for electricity, can be relatively neutral or progressive, implying that lower-income households capture benefits that are proportionate to their expenditures. In other words, although poorer households receive very little from every dollar spent on energy subsidies, that small amount may represent an important share of their expenditures. It is important, then, that governments expand the coverage and depth of their social safety nets to provide relief for poor households if energy prices rise. This report also finds that aggregate price impacts and the competitiveness effects of energy price increases are moderate to small and can be smoothed out through macropolicy responses. 410 0$aWorld Bank e-Library. 606 $aFiscal policy$zLatin America 607 $aCaribbean Area$2fast 607 $aLatin America$2fast 615 0$aFiscal policy 676 $a336.3098 700 $aBeylis$b Guillermo$01662324 702 $aCunha$b Barbara 712 02$aWorld Bank, 801 0$bDJBF 801 1$bDJBF 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910818114803321 996 $aEnergy Pricing Policies for Inclusive Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean$94095176 997 $aUNINA