Energy subsidies, energy intensity and management practices

By Helena Schweiger and Alexander Stepanov

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 fossil fuel subsidies. 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.