Government Subsidies

This paper addresses the problems of defining and measuring government subsidies, examines why and how government subsidies are used as a fiscal policy tool, assesses their economic effects, appraises international empirical evidence on government subsidies, and offers options for their reform. Recent international trends in government subsidy expenditure are analyzed for the 16-year period from 1975 to 1990, using general government subsidy data for 60 countries from the System of National Accounts (SNA) and central government expenditure on subsidies and other current transfers for 68 countries from Government Finance Statistics (GFS). The paper reviews major policy options for subsidy reform, focusing on ways to improve the cost-effectiveness of subsidy programs.

Much of the global economy depends on large scale government intervention in the form of subsidies, many of which are perverse in that they damage economies and environments. This study offers a view of subsidies world-wide with focus on the extent, causes and consequences of perverse subsidies.

Just reading the word ‘subsidies’ may cause many people’s eyes to glaze over. We don’t think it affects us directly, so we tune out. But it turns out that this complicated-sounding issue has an enormous impact on all of us. The Big Handout is about bad fiscal, environmental, agricultural, water, energy, health, and foreign policies. And it’s a story about just one thing — subsidies. A subsidy is a grant by the government to a private business that is deemed advantageous to the public. Cotton, wheat, corn, soy, and oil are the most subsidised commodities in the United States. In this eye-opening book, New York Times–bestselling author Thomas Kostigen explores government policies that cost US taxpayers $200 billion per year, or over $1,500 per household. In some cases, they pay more for subsidised goods than they’d pay in a free market — and, in the most shocking abuses of the subsidy system, they pay for goods that aren’t even produced. The Big Handout exposes how artificial pricing hurts US citizens and people worldwide, from our waistlines and pocketbooks to our health. By revealing just how toxic America’s subsidy system has become for everyone — including the way it distorts the prices of goods produced by genuinely free-trade countries such as Australia — The Big Handout is a wake-up call for farmers, consumers, and politicians.

The paper studies the economic determinants of government subsidies using panel data for 40 countries over 18 years (from 1975 to 1992) and finds that individual country-specific factors play a sizeable role in determining government subsidies. But it also suggests several characteristics—a small government, a small external current account deficit, and a productive structure geared more toward services and agriculture than manufacturing—may make it easier to keep subsidy expenditures down. The paper also suggests that globalization and the associated increase in openness are not impediments to reducing subsidies. In itself, an IMF-supported adjustment program is found not to be a significant determinant of government subsidy expenditures.