Balancing the scales: gendered impacts and policy responses to oil price shocks in Spain

Abstract

This paper analyses Spanish households’ vulnerability to oil price shocks from a gender perspective and explores different compensatory policies to reduce it. The methodological approach combines an input–output price model and a microsimulation model based on the Household Budget Survey. The paper studies the impacts of the recent surge in oil prices using four scenarios based on different alleviation measures (discounts on fuels, subsidies for public transport, and a combination of the two). Gender implications are analyzed considering the gender of the household reference person and the household feminization degree. The results show that oil price shocks have a more significant impact on those households with greater mobility needs, dependence on private transport, and less accessibility to public transport. Among the policy responses, subsidizing public transport would be the most effective policy from an economic point of view and the fairest from a gender and social justice perspective.