Subsidies as a social safety net: effectiveness and challenges

This paper will consider a range of consumer-oriented subsidy instruments, including general subsidies, and tax exemptions as well as targeted quotas. Section II discusses the distribution, or incidence of the subsidy expenditures for all these instruments. It focuses primarily on food as the means by which the subsidy is delivered, although the section concludes with a brief comparison of food subsidies with energy subsidies. The following section asks whether food subsidies actually achieve the nutritional, and stabilization goals that they are often claimed to achieve. Some of the administrative concerns about market interventions that policymakers must consider, are discussed in Section IV. These administrative concerns, as well as their effects on beneficiaries, point to possibilities for program reform, which are discussed in the final section.