Research report 2023 - Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance
Do oil import sanctions work?
Authors
Konrad, Kai; Thum, Marcel
Departments
Max-Planck-Institut für Steuerrecht und Öffentliche Finanzen, München
Summary
Oil export embargoes have hardly any sanctioning effect on autocratically governed countries with large oil reserves and an environment with functioning global oil and financial markets. Oil embargoes cause damage to the sanctioned governments if the autocrats‘ future power situation is uncertain. There is a sanction effect under these conditions, which is greater if there are no concurrent sanctions on the financial markets: sanctions on the financial markets and sanctions through oil embargoes prevent each other‘s effectiveness.