1 AIT Asian Institute of Technology

Welfare implications of road transport fuel pricing reform in Vietnam

AuthorNguyen Hai Au
Call NumberAIT Thesis no. ET-98-15
Subject(s)Transportation, Automotive--Vietnam
Welfare economics
Fuel--Prices

NoteA thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering, School of Environment, Resources and Development
PublisherAsian Institute of Technology
AbstractUntil now, petroleum products market in Vietnam has no production process since almost these products have been imported every year to meet the domestic needs. Gasoline and diesel are the most important petroleum products consumed in road transport sector. Therefore, the estimation of their demand in Vietnam has an important significance. Nonetheless, the economic impact of their consumption on society and community is considerable. There is a few researches have considered carefully to this matter in the past. This study objects to quantification of social welfare of their pricing and taxation system, hence interpretes the implications of pricing policies given by the Government. In order to construct a model for petroleum products demand, it requires a lot of relatively relevant information, such as price and income per capita ... For this purpose, we should exercise this task by applying an econometric approach. In detail, a lagged log-linear regression analysis was used for the case of Vietnam. Other different models are analysed with the help of an econometric software known as MICROFIT. However, it is much more difficult to study the characteristics of energy demand in Vietnam as well as many developing countries on an empirical basis of econometric analysis because there is little good data available for formulating the models and the structure of energy demand itself change rapidly under very fast changes in economic structure. These changes could bias parameter estimation for models based on a static structure of energy demand. Study' s results figure out the unexpected inelasticity of price and the strong elasticity of income with gasoline and diesel demand based on available data. Moreover, the social welfare losses due to subsidies of gasoline and diesel consumption have been measured during period 1985-1996. Hence, it entails some comments on pricing system of petroleum products controlled absolutely by the Government that causes an ineffective price regime so far. It also creates a reason to improve the pricing system of petroleum products in the future.
Year1998
TypeThesis
SchoolSchool of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD)
DepartmentDepartment of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC))
Academic Program/FoSEnergy Technology (ET)
Chairperson(s)Pacudan, Romeo B.;
Examination Committee(s)Lefevre, Thierry ;Savin, Daniel V. ;
Scholarship Donor(s)Government of France ;
DegreeThesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1998


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