Development finance institutions mobilize over $250 billion annually through blended finance operations, yet practitioners lack a unified framework to evaluate its catalytic effect and for choosing among instruments. I develop a model of investment multipliers under two canonical market...

This paper evaluates the employment and sales effects of two widely used financial support instruments for small and medium-sized enterprises, interest rate subsidies and credit guarantees, using administrative program data from Kazakhstan matched to the universe of firms. Utilizing staggered...

This Report goes beyond diagnosing subsidy problems to provide clear, evidence based, and politically grounded guidance for policy makers on reform paths. It offers a comprehensive overview of the costs and benefits of subsidies, along with strategies for reform. It outlines pathways for...

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed significant vulnerabilities in public-sector administrative capacity, particularly in the implementation of crisis-related state aid schemes. Under conditions of extreme workload, time pressure, and legal constraints, administrative processes became critical...

ndustrial policy has returned to the centre of economic governance, particularly in the high-tech sectors where positive network externalities in demand make market dominance self-reinforcing. This paper studies the welfare effects of an industrial policy targeting a sector with network...

This study explores public opinion for reducing fossil fuel subsidies in Angola, identifies strategies that can shift public opinion, and analyzes variations in support based on respondents’ area of residency and gender. It uses data from a survey of 598 respondents and focus groups involving...

This paper studies how employment subsidies for start-ups shape their performance. We exploit an unexpected policy reform in Belgium that permanently exempted start-ups hiring their first employee from payroll taxes for that employee. Using firm-level administrative data and a...

This paper studies how employment subsidies for start-ups shape their performance. We exploit an unexpected policy reform in Belgium that permanently exempted start-ups hiring their first employee from payroll taxes for that employee. Using firm-level administrative data and a...

The resurgence of subsidies and industrial policies has raised concerns about their potential inefficiency and alignment with multilateral principles. Critics warn that such policies may divert resources to less efficient firms and provoke retaliatory measures from other countries, leading to a...

Deployment subsidies for nascent technologies have moved to the forefront of climate action, industrial policy, and geoeconomics. To limit the substantial fiscal costs of such programs, policymakers routinely employ subsidy schedules that are nonlinear in the quantity agents deploy. However,...

This study evaluates the impact of Malta's 2014 childcare reform, a universal Free Childcare Scheme for children aged 3 months to 3 years, on female employment. Using a difference-in-differences (DD) framework and matched DD models, I find that the reform may have increased the probability of...

Using Chinese firm-level trade data combined with global anti-dumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations, we uncover a previously overlooked cost of industrial policy under WTO agreements. At every stage of AD/CVD investigation, subsidies significantly raise the probability of...

I develop and estimate a life-cycle discrete-choice model of fertility and female labor supply to study the optimal design of a range of child-related policies. First, I examine two German reforms that introduced wage-contingent parental leave payments and expanded access to low-cost public...

This paper studies how employment subsidies for start-ups shape their performance. We exploit an unexpected policy reform in Belgium that permanently exempted start-ups hiring their first employee from payroll taxes for that employee. Using firm-level administrative data and a...

This study examines the economic and environmental impacts of fossil fuel subsidies in the European Union (EU) during the energy crisis triggered by the 2022 Ukraine war, focusing on their implications for corporate performance and sustainability. Using a panel dataset of 100 publicly listed...

This paper examines China's emergence as the dominant global manufacturer of green technology, a development originally driven by its pressing domestic need to address environmental degradation and energy security. By implementing a comprehensive industrial strategy anchored in the strategic...

In this article, we evaluate the impact of a targeted fee subsidy program that reduced the registration cost of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) Spanish exam-a standardized regional assessment for high school leavers seeking to demonstrate language proficiency. The subsidy...

This paper examines the impact of tuition subsidies on tertiary education outcomes in a setting where financial barriers are already substantially reduced. We study the introduction of New Zealand's Fees-Free policy, which eliminated first-year tuition fees, in a system where tuition is financed...

We leverage a quasi-natural experiment from India on introduction of free bus schemes for women to study its impact on women's labour force participation (WLFP) and other welfare indicators. We use two rounds of the representative Time Use Survey (2019 and 2024) and a triple difference...

ubsidizing fossil fuel consumption is at odds with climate change mitigation and a heavy burden on public budgets. Yet, efforts to reform such subsidies often face strong public opposition. We examine whether informing citizens about the effects of fossil fuel subsidy reform (FFSR) and...

Access to clean cooking fuel remains a persistent challenge for billions globally, with women bearing a disproportionate share of the associated health burden. This paper provides an empirical analysis of India's Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) - the world's largest initiative to promote...

This research estimates by how much the NCS reduces childcare costs for families who use formal childcare in Ireland. The cost 'coverage' of the subsidy, measured by the ratio of the subsidy to the total cost of care, is estimated using the microsimulation model, SWITCH, linked to 2022 data from...

The distributional and disruptive effects of energy supply shocks are potentially large. We study the effectiveness of alternative fiscal responses in a two-country HANK model calibrated to the euro area. Subsidies can stabilize the domestic economy, but they are fiscally costly and generate...

In many countries, subsidies towards higher education and financial aid to students from poorer backgrounds have reduced socio-economic status (SES) gaps in undergraduate study. The increasing importance of graduate studies that are typically more expensive may, however, provide a new avenue for...

The aim of this study was to analyse energy subsidies and other financial support distributed in the EU27, at the national level, over the period 2015 to 2022 and, when data is available, to 2023. Quantitative analyses of the volume (in euros) and trends of subsidies are provided, with the...