The impacts of petroleum price fluctuations on income distribution across ethnic groups in Malaysia

Crude oil price hikes have compelled governments of developing countries to let domestic prices of energy increase. Fiscal priorities made it impossible to fully compensate the hikes by raising energy subsidies. This paper examines the potential impacts of a limited deregulation of the petroleum pri...

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Main Authors: Saari, M. Yusof, Dietzenbacher, Erik, Los, Bart
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2016
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/53024/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/53024/1/The%20impacts%20of%20petroleum%20price%20fluctuations%20on%20income%20distribution%20across%20ethnic%20groups%20in%20Malaysia.pdf
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author Saari, M. Yusof
Dietzenbacher, Erik
Los, Bart
author_facet Saari, M. Yusof
Dietzenbacher, Erik
Los, Bart
author_sort Saari, M. Yusof
building UPM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Crude oil price hikes have compelled governments of developing countries to let domestic prices of energy increase. Fiscal priorities made it impossible to fully compensate the hikes by raising energy subsidies. This paper examines the potential impacts of a limited deregulation of the petroleum price on the income distribution in Malaysia, paying specific attention to differences in impacts on major ethnic groups. We introduce an extended social accounting matrix (SAM) model, which not only incorporates substitution possibilities among production inputs and consumption goods, but also allows for the exogenous determination of the price of intermediate inputs. The results of simulations indicate that distributional impacts of rising petroleum prices tend to be regressive, affecting poor people more severely than richer people. All ethnic groups experience income loss with the real incomes of Malay households (which are relatively poor, on average) more than the Chinese and Indian households (which are the generally richer).
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spelling upm-530242017-11-17T01:39:10Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/53024/ The impacts of petroleum price fluctuations on income distribution across ethnic groups in Malaysia Saari, M. Yusof Dietzenbacher, Erik Los, Bart Crude oil price hikes have compelled governments of developing countries to let domestic prices of energy increase. Fiscal priorities made it impossible to fully compensate the hikes by raising energy subsidies. This paper examines the potential impacts of a limited deregulation of the petroleum price on the income distribution in Malaysia, paying specific attention to differences in impacts on major ethnic groups. We introduce an extended social accounting matrix (SAM) model, which not only incorporates substitution possibilities among production inputs and consumption goods, but also allows for the exogenous determination of the price of intermediate inputs. The results of simulations indicate that distributional impacts of rising petroleum prices tend to be regressive, affecting poor people more severely than richer people. All ethnic groups experience income loss with the real incomes of Malay households (which are relatively poor, on average) more than the Chinese and Indian households (which are the generally richer). Elsevier 2016-10 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/53024/1/The%20impacts%20of%20petroleum%20price%20fluctuations%20on%20income%20distribution%20across%20ethnic%20groups%20in%20Malaysia.pdf Saari, M. Yusof and Dietzenbacher, Erik and Los, Bart (2016) The impacts of petroleum price fluctuations on income distribution across ethnic groups in Malaysia. Ecological Economics, 130. pp. 25-36. ISSN 0921-8009 http://www.elsevier.com/locate/issn/09218009 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.05.021
spellingShingle Saari, M. Yusof
Dietzenbacher, Erik
Los, Bart
The impacts of petroleum price fluctuations on income distribution across ethnic groups in Malaysia
title The impacts of petroleum price fluctuations on income distribution across ethnic groups in Malaysia
title_full The impacts of petroleum price fluctuations on income distribution across ethnic groups in Malaysia
title_fullStr The impacts of petroleum price fluctuations on income distribution across ethnic groups in Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed The impacts of petroleum price fluctuations on income distribution across ethnic groups in Malaysia
title_short The impacts of petroleum price fluctuations on income distribution across ethnic groups in Malaysia
title_sort impacts of petroleum price fluctuations on income distribution across ethnic groups in malaysia
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/53024/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/53024/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/53024/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/53024/1/The%20impacts%20of%20petroleum%20price%20fluctuations%20on%20income%20distribution%20across%20ethnic%20groups%20in%20Malaysia.pdf