Subsidy reform: effective targeting to reach the poor? The case of Egypt

Talaat, Walaa (2018) Subsidy reform: effective targeting to reach the poor? The case of Egypt. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

In Egypt, the Food Subsidy Programme (FSP) contributes greatly to social stability, yet there is academic and political pressure to reform the system to prioritise the effective targeting of the poor. This has been particularly so since the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, and in the light of claims by the government and international organisations that the programme is relatively expensive and ineffective in targeting the poor. Most previous studies of the Egyptian FSP address the challenges of exclusion and inclusion errors, from an exclusively econometric approach. However, in this study a mixed approach method is taken with a combination of primary and secondary data. The main source of statistical data is a cross sectional data from the representative national Household Income, Expenditure and Consumption Survey (HIECS), conducted by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS, 2013) of Egypt for 2012/13. This survey contains 7,528 household heads in 27 (local government) governorates, for both urban and rural areas, encompassing around 32,732 individual household members. Applying a more “orthodox”- commonly used- quantitative evaluation of targeting, the study shows errors of inclusion and exclusion of the FSP’s current targeting system across all of the country’s governorates. Additionally, the study explores how targeting is affected by the programme’s bureaucratic structure and policy design. This draws on concepts and theories of public administration and takes account of the growing influence of international organisations in recent reforms. As well as policy documents, this analysis draws on key informant interviews and 12 months of qualitative fieldwork across three different study sites in Cairo, Alexandria and Assuit. This analysis is complemented by the application of sociological concepts, especially street-level bureaucracy, to explore the dynamics of targeting at the micro-level. This reveals how the implementers of the programme at the local level and their working conditions influence targeting outcomes. These combined methods generate both a statistically reliable measure of the targeting performance, as well a more in-depth insights about the programme’s effectiveness in achieving targeting outcomes. A major conclusion is that targeting performance cannot be adequately understood purely on the basis of macro-level econometric analysis, but requires a more multi-disciplinary, multi-level approach. These contextualised insights are therefore essential if real improvements to targeting and effectiveness are to be achieved.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Global Development (formerly School of International Development)
Depositing User:	Zoe White
Date Deposited:	27 Jun 2025 13:53
Last Modified:	27 Jun 2025 13:53
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/99756
DOI:

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