Measuring Industrial Subsidies

Industrial subsidies should ideally be measured in ways that permit comparisons across subsidy instruments and countries, and that facilitate subsequent economic analysis of the effects of subsidisation. This paper deals with a number of conceptual issues that arise from these requirements. It first covers some definitional issues, concluding that subsidies should be measured broadly to include a wide range of instruments and both direct and indirect subsidy schemes. The paper then discusses measurement concepts for a range of instruments available to governments ...