Transportation Cost, Fuel Subsidies, and Commodity Prices

Abstract Despite being at the forefront of the global policy agenda, fuel subsidy reform is understudied and its impact on trade is not particularly well understood. This type of reform could have a huge impact on market performance by increasing transportation costs. I present a case study from Ethiopia, which removed its fuel subsidies and increased the price of diesel price by 39% overnight on 4 October 2008. What is the impact of such an increase in diesel price on transportation costs and hence grain prices in developing countries such as Ethiopia? I use spatial difference-in-difference (sDID) on distance from major markets to assess the effects of removing the fuel subsidy on grain price dispersion. The sDID leverages distance from the national capital to investigate the impact of fuel subsidy reform on markets located at different distances from consumer centers. The results indicate that remote markets experienced high price dispersion compared to markets near the capital.