Biofuel subsidies: an open-economy analysis

Subhayu Bandyopadhyay, Sumon Bhaumik and Howard Wall

No 2009-053, Working Papers from Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Abstract: We present a general equilibrium analysis of biofuel subsidies in an open-economy context. In the small-country case, when a Pigouvian tax on conventional fuels such as crude is in place, the optimal biofuel subsidy is zero. When the tax on crude is not available as a policy option, however, a second-best biofuel subsidy (or tax) is optimal. In the large-country case, the optimal tax on crude departs from its standard Pigouvian level and a biofuel subsidy is optimal. A biofuel subsidy spurs global demand for food and confers a terms-of-trade benefit to the food-exporting nation. This might encourage the food-exporting nation to use a subsidy even if it raises global crude use. The food importer has no such incentive for subsidization. Terms-of-trade effects wash out between trading nations; hence, any policy intervention by the two trading nations that raises crude use must be jointly suboptimal.

Keywords: Macroeconomics; Economic conditions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-ene
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Working Paper: Biofuel Subsidies: An Open-Economy Analysis (2009)
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DOI: 10.20955/wp.2009.053

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