Compensating against fuel price inflation: Price subsidies or transfers?

A-Tier
Journal: Journal of Environmental Economics and Management
Year: 2025
Volume: 129
Issue: C

Authors (4)

Bonnet, Odran (not in RePEc) Fize, Étienne (not in RePEc) Loisel, Tristan (not in RePEc) Wilner, Lionel (Centre de Recherche en Économi...)

Score contribution per author:

1.005 = (α=2.01 / 4 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Compensating agents against substantial and sudden shocks requires both targeting tax policies and taking behavioral responses into account. Based on transaction-level data from France, this article exploits quasi-experimental variation provided by 2022 fuel price inflation and excise tax cuts. After disentangling anticipation from price effects, we estimate a price elasticity of fuel demand of −0.31, on average, which varies little with respect to income and location but substantially decreases with fuel spending, in absolute value. Using targeted transfers only achieves imperfect compensation, yet a budget-constrained policy-maker seeking to alleviate excessive losses relative to income prefers income-based transfers to price subsidies.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:jeeman:v:129:y:2025:i:c:s0095069624001530
Journal Field
Environment
Author Count
4
Added to Database
2026-01-29