Estimating the Welfare Costs of Reforming the Iraq Public Distribution System: A Mixed Demand Approach

doi:10.1080/00220388.2019.1687878

Publication:
Estimating the Welfare Costs of Reforming the Iraq Public Distribution System: A Mixed Demand Approach

dc.contributor.author	Ramadan, Racha
dc.contributor.author	Krishnan, Nandini
dc.contributor.author	Olivieri, Sergio
dc.date.accessioned	2020-01-08T18:28:18Z
dc.date.available	2020-01-08T18:28:18Z
dc.date.issued	2019-12-06
dc.description.abstract	Through three decades of conflict, food rations delivered through the public distribution system (PDS) have remained the largest safety net among Iraq’s population. Reforming the PDS continues to be politically challenging, notwithstanding the system’s import dependence, economic distortions, and unsustainable fiscal burden. The oil price decline of mid-2014 and recent efforts to rebuild and recover have put PDS reform back on the agenda. The government needs to find an effective way to deliver broad benefits from a narrow economic base reliant on oil. The study described here adopts a mixed demand approach to analyzing household consumption patterns for the purpose of assessing plausible reform scenarios and estimating the direction and scale of the associated welfare costs and transfers. It finds that household consumption of PDS items is relatively inelastic to changes in price, particularly among the poor. The results suggest that any one-shot reform will have sizeable adverse welfare impacts and will need to be preceded by a well-targeted compensation mechanism. To keep welfare constant, subsidy removal in urban areas, for example, would require the poorest and richest households to be compensated for, respectively, 74 per cent and nearly 40 per cent of their PDS expenditures.	en
dc.identifier.citation	The Journal of Development Studies
dc.identifier.doi	10.1596/33146
dc.identifier.issn	0022-0388
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10986/33146
dc.publisher	Taylor and Francis
dc.rights	CC BY 3.0 IGO
dc.rights.holder	World Bank
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo
dc.subject	WELFARE
dc.subject	FOOD RATIONS
dc.subject	SAFETY NETS
dc.subject	PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION
dc.subject	FISCAL BURDEN
dc.subject	FOOD SECURITY
dc.title	Estimating the Welfare Costs of Reforming the Iraq Public Distribution System	en
dc.title.subtitle	A Mixed Demand Approach	en
dc.type	Journal Article	en
dc.type	Article de journal	fr
dc.type	Artículo de revista	es
dspace.entity.type	Publication
okr.associatedcontent	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00220388.2019.1687878 Journal website (version of record)	en
okr.associatedcontent	https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/27305 Working paper version (pre-print)	en
okr.crossref.title	Estimating the Welfare Costs of Reforming the Iraq Public Distribution System: A Mixed Demand Approach
okr.date.disclosure	2020-01-08
okr.doctype	Publications & Research::Journal Article
okr.doctype	Publications & Research
okr.externalcontent	External Content
okr.guid	826611581059508027
okr.identifier.doi	10.1080/00220388.2019.1687878
okr.identifier.doi	10.1596/33146
okr.identifier.doi	https://doi.org/10.1596/33146
okr.identifier.report	145817
okr.journal.nbpages	91-106
okr.language.supported	en
okr.peerreview	Academic Peer Review
okr.region.administrative	Middle East and North Africa
okr.region.country	Iraq
okr.topic	Agriculture::Food Security
okr.topic	Poverty Reduction::Inequality
okr.topic	Poverty Reduction::Living Standards
okr.topic	Social Protections and Labor::Safety Nets and Transfers
okr.topic	Public Sector Development::Public Sector Economics
okr.topic	Public Sector Development::Public Sector Management and Reform
okr.unit	Poverty and Equity Global Practice
okr.volume	55(sup1)
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