In this paper we estimate the effect of agricultural electricity subsidies in India on groundwater extraction and agricultural output. Our empirical approach exploits changes in state electricity prices over time controlling for aggregate annual shocks and fixed district unobservables. Electricity subsidies meaningfully increase groundwater extraction, where the implied extensive margin price e...

In this paper, we investigate the responsiveness of the demand for college to changes in student aid arising from a Danish reform. We separately identify the effect of aid from that of other observed and unobserved variables such as parental income. We exploit the combination of a kinked aid scheme and a reform of the student aid scheme to identify the effect of direct costs on college enrollme...

While the Uruguay Round resulted in greater transparency of agricultural trade barriers and limited liberalization, substantial barriers to trade in livestock products remain. This paper makes a projection of the global economy to 2005, and then seeks to determine the impacts of alternative outcomes of the next WTO Millenium Round. Three options for reform are explored – one is restricted to fr...

From 2004 until 2006, reform of US agricultural subsidy programmes seemed a likely result of pressure from the World Trade Organization. Many groups saw this pressure as an opportunity to ‘green’ farm policy by crafting environmental service payments that could replace crop subsidies. Yet the 2008 US farm bill fell short of such drastic changes. This paper uses discourse analysis to trace the d...

Previous studies have viewed Swiss health-care financing as particularly regressive. However, as the OECD Review of the Swiss Health System (2011) stated, the income-related inequities and the inter cantonal variations are still unexplored due to a lack of available information. The present paper aims to fill this information gap concerning the Swiss health system by exploring the differences i...

This survey reviews the relationship between regulation and distribution, focusing on regulatory reform in developing countries. The characteristics of these countries impose constraints on appropriate regulatory policies. These constraints condition i) the terms of the tradeoff between firms’ rents and efficiency, including the commitment problem in the presence of sunk investments, and ii) th...

services has long been recognized as essential to public health and individual welfare. In most countries government policy has traditionally been to keep water companies in public ownership, and to keep tariffs artificially low through a range of more or less explicit subsidy measures. The results have often been unsatisfactory. Service quality and coverage remain inadequate in many countries,...

The reform of water resource tax policies is an important measure in the process China’s green economic transformation. Therefore, improving accuracy policy impact prediction crucial for policymakers to make correct decisions. This study focused on composed and pollution tax. A computable general equilibrium (WCGE) model extended from traditional was proposed simulate impacts changes determine ...

This paper makes an analysis of subsidies in Chile’s public utilities. Rates rebalancing have practically eliminated cross subsidies, and current programs are funded from the national budget. Over the last decade in particular, significant efforts have been made to extend public services to rural populations, and a consumption subsidy for potable water currently benefits 17% of the population. ...