Approaches and Insights from Recent Research on Energy Subsidy Reform

This report summarizes the findings of a review aimed at understanding emerging approaches to energy subsidy reform, discerning trends, and identifying major strands of thinking and research in the field, as reflected in major policy and academic journals relevant to the subject. The review was initiated in early 2020 as part of a multiyear stocktaking study on energy subsidy reform experiences in developing countries by the ESMAP Energy Subsidy Reform Facility (ESRF). The study objectives were achieved through a two-stage process involving screening of select policy and academic journals focusing on energy policy, economics, and other related fields. The process was used to identify relevant articles on energy subsidy reform and explore themes and trends related to scope, substance, and messaging. The review focused on identifying recent trends in the selected literature, in particular the coverage, focus, themes, and approaches related to energy subsidy reforms. Recent literature was compared with earlier approaches, and commonalities and changes in methodology and focus were documented