Publication Code: A73

The Economic Impact of the Liberalization of Oil Market

Table of Contents

The major goal of this research is to dispel these myths and to consider the impact of the oil market's liberalization objectively from the public interest point of view. In particular, we focus on three issues which are key public concerns:

1. The impact of liberalization on the stability of the oil price and the speed of price transmission.
2. The impact of liberalization on resource allocation efficiency. The study focuses, in particular, on three sub-topics, namely, the evaluation of the impact on major economic sectors, the impact on consumption efficiency, and the assessment of the validity of the single oil price policy.
3. The impact of liberalization on the structure of the oil market and the conduct and performance of oil companies and dealers.

May 1998