Dr Helena Schweiger will give a presentation during the International Business and Strategy research seminar series on 28th November

Dr Helena Schweiger of European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is giving a seminar presentation during the International Business and Strategy lunchtime seminar series on 28th November, at 13.00-14.30 in room 108, Henley Business School.

Presentation title:

Energy subsidies, energy intensity and management practices

Abstract:

We use unique firm-level data on management practices and energy expenditures in about 2,000 manufacturing firms in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Middle East and North Africa to examine how the quality of management practices relates to the energy intensity of firms, taking into account energy subsidies for fossil fuels. We use country- and country-sector-level measures of energy subsidies and distinguish between energy subsidies that take into account externalities and those that do not. Regardless of whether we measure fuel subsidies at the country- or country-sector-level,we find that an improvement of management practices quality from the 25th to the 75th percentile of the management practices quality distribution is associated with about 20 per cent fuel intensity reduction when fuel subsidies are low (negative) and with about 3 per cent fuel intensity reduction when fuel subsidies are high. The magnitude is stronger in high energy-intensive sectors, where firms aremore sensitive to energy prices.