Legatum Institute Foundation

Subsidies to consumer goods, including fuels and food, account for almost one third of Egypt's public spending. They have been an inefficient method of helping the poor and represent an unsustainable drain on Egypt's public finances. On this rationale, Dalibor Rohac presented his paper, 'Towards a Reform of Egyptian Subsidies - The Political Feasibility of Unconditional Cash Transfers', arguing for an immediate elimination of subsidies and their replacement with a stream of unconditional cash transfers.