diff --git a/be/src/exec/hdfs-table-sink.cc b/be/src/exec/hdfs-table-sink.cc
index f61d13ad9..01a170117 100644
--- a/be/src/exec/hdfs-table-sink.cc
+++ b/be/src/exec/hdfs-table-sink.cc
@@ -223,7 +223,9 @@ void HdfsTableSink::BuildHdfsFileNames(OutputPartition* output_partition) {
       // with 'show partitions <tbl>' in Hive, followed by a select
       // from a decoded partition key value.
       string encoded_str;
-      UrlEncode(value_str, &encoded_str);
+      // The final parameter forces compatibility with Hive, which
+      // doesn't URL-encode every character.
+      UrlEncode(value_str, &encoded_str, true);
       common_suffix << encoded_str;
     }
     common_suffix << "/";
diff --git a/be/src/util/url-coding-test.cc b/be/src/util/url-coding-test.cc
index a1792ff69..cc98b5f97 100644
--- a/be/src/util/url-coding-test.cc
+++ b/be/src/util/url-coding-test.cc
@@ -25,14 +25,14 @@ namespace impala {
 
 // Tests encoding/decoding of input.  If expected_encoded is non-empty, the
 // encoded string is validated against it.
-void TestUrl(const string& input, const string& expected_encoded) {
+void TestUrl(const string& input, const string& expected_encoded, bool hive_compat) {
   string intermediate;
-  UrlEncode(input, &intermediate);
+  UrlEncode(input, &intermediate, hive_compat);
   string output;
   if (!expected_encoded.empty()) {
     EXPECT_EQ(intermediate, expected_encoded);
   }
-  EXPECT_TRUE(UrlDecode(intermediate, &output));
+  EXPECT_TRUE(UrlDecode(intermediate, &output, hive_compat));
   EXPECT_EQ(input, output);
 
   // Convert string to vector and try that also
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ void TestUrl(const string& input, const string& expected_encoded) {
   input_vector.resize(input.size());
   memcpy(&input_vector[0], input.c_str(), input.size());
   string intermediate2;
-  UrlEncode(input_vector, &intermediate2);
+  UrlEncode(input_vector, &intermediate2, hive_compat);
   EXPECT_EQ(intermediate, intermediate2);
 }
 
@@ -67,15 +67,22 @@ void TestBase64(const string& input, const string& expected_encoded) {
 // same that come out.
 TEST(UrlCodingTest, Basic) {
   string input = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUWXYZ1234567890~!@#$%^&*()<>?,./:\";'{}|[]\\_+-=";
-  TestUrl(input, "");
+  TestUrl(input, "", false);
+  TestUrl(input, "", true);
+}
+
+TEST(UrlCodingTest, HiveExceptions) {
+  TestUrl(" +", " +", true);
 }
 
 TEST(UrlCodingTest, BlankString) {
-  TestUrl("", "");
+  TestUrl("", "", false);
+  TestUrl("", "", true);
 }
 
 TEST(UrlCodingTest, PathSeparators) {
-  TestUrl("/home/impala/directory/", "%2Fhome%2Fimpala%2Fdirectory%2F");
+  TestUrl("/home/impala/directory/", "%2Fhome%2Fimpala%2Fdirectory%2F", false);
+  TestUrl("/home/impala/directory/", "%2Fhome%2Fimpala%2Fdirectory%2F", true);
 }
 
 TEST(Base64Test, Basic) {
diff --git a/be/src/util/url-coding.cc b/be/src/util/url-coding.cc
index 4f3540c4a..9338bf142 100644
--- a/be/src/util/url-coding.cc
+++ b/be/src/util/url-coding.cc
@@ -31,38 +31,53 @@ using namespace boost::archive::iterators;
 
 namespace impala {
 
-static inline void UrlEncode(const char* in, int in_len, string* out) {
+// Hive selectively encodes characters. This is the whitelist of
+// characters it will encode.
+// See common/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hive/common/FileUtils.java
+// in the Hive source code for the source of this list.
+static function<bool (char)> HiveShouldEscape = is_any_of("\"#%\\*/:=?\u00FF");
+
+// It is more convenient to maintain the complement of the set of
+// characters to escape when not in Hive-compat mode.
+static function<bool (char)> ShouldNotEscape = is_any_of("-_.~");
+
+static inline void UrlEncode(const char* in, int in_len, string* out, bool hive_compat) {
   (*out).reserve(in_len);
   stringstream ss;
   for (int i = 0; i < in_len; ++i) {
     const char ch = in[i];
-    if (isalnum(ch) || ch == '-' || ch == '_' || ch == '.' || ch == '~') {
-      ss << ch;
-    } else {
+    // Escape the character iff a) we are in Hive-compat mode and the
+    // character is in the Hive whitelist or b) we are not in
+    // Hive-compat mode, and the character is not alphanumeric or one
+    // of the four commonly excluded characters.
+    if ((hive_compat && HiveShouldEscape(ch)) ||
+        (!hive_compat && !(isalnum(ch) || ShouldNotEscape(ch)))) {
       ss << '%' << uppercase << hex << static_cast<uint32_t>(ch);
+    } else {
+      ss << ch;
     }
   }
 
   (*out) = ss.str();
 }
 
-void UrlEncode(const vector<uint8_t>& in, string* out) {
+void UrlEncode(const vector<uint8_t>& in, string* out, bool hive_compat) {
   if (in.empty()) {
     *out = "";
   } else {
-    UrlEncode(reinterpret_cast<const char*>(&in[0]), in.size(), out);
+    UrlEncode(reinterpret_cast<const char*>(&in[0]), in.size(), out, hive_compat);
   }
 }
 
-void UrlEncode(const string& in, string* out) {
-  UrlEncode(in.c_str(), in.size(), out);
+void UrlEncode(const string& in, string* out, bool hive_compat) {
+  UrlEncode(in.c_str(), in.size(), out, hive_compat);
 }
 
 // Adapted from
 // http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_40_0/doc/html/boost_asio/
 //   example/http/server3/request_handler.cpp
 // See http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt for license for this method.
-bool UrlDecode(const string& in, string* out) {
+bool UrlDecode(const string& in, string* out, bool hive_compat) {
   out->clear();
   out->reserve(in.size());
   for (size_t i = 0; i < in.size(); ++i) {
@@ -79,7 +94,7 @@ bool UrlDecode(const string& in, string* out) {
       } else {
         return false;
       }
-    } else if (in[i] == '+') {
+    } else if (!hive_compat && in[i] == '+') { // Hive does not encode ' ' as '+'
       (*out) += ' ';
     } else {
       (*out) += in[i];
@@ -95,7 +110,7 @@ static inline void Base64Encode(const char* in, int in_len, stringstream* out) {
   copy(base64_encode(in), base64_encode(in + in_len), ostream_iterator<char>(*out));
   int bytes_written = out->tellp() - len_before;
   // Pad with = to make it valid base64 encoded string
-  int num_pad = bytes_written % 4; 
+  int num_pad = bytes_written % 4;
   if (num_pad != 0) {
     num_pad = 4 - num_pad;
     for (int i = 0; i < num_pad; ++i) {
@@ -138,7 +153,7 @@ bool Base64Decode(const string& in, string* out) {
       binary_from_base64<string::const_iterator> , 8, 6> base64_decode;
   string tmp = in;
   // Replace padding with base64 encoded NULL
-  replace(tmp.begin(), tmp.end(), '=', 'A'); 
+  replace(tmp.begin(), tmp.end(), '=', 'A');
   try {
     *out = string(base64_decode(tmp.begin()), base64_decode(tmp.end()));
   } catch(std::exception& e) {
diff --git a/be/src/util/url-coding.h b/be/src/util/url-coding.h
index bcb4de62a..c8fbe901a 100644
--- a/be/src/util/url-coding.h
+++ b/be/src/util/url-coding.h
@@ -23,12 +23,19 @@ namespace impala {
 
 // Utility method to URL-encode a string (that is, replace special
 // characters with %<hex value in ascii>).
-void UrlEncode(const std::string& in, std::string* out);
-void UrlEncode(const std::vector<uint8_t>& in, std::string* out);
+// The optional parameter hive_compat controls whether we mimic Hive's
+// behaviour when encoding a string, which is only to encode certain
+// characters (excluding, e.g., ' ')
+void UrlEncode(const std::string& in, std::string* out, bool hive_compat = false);
+void UrlEncode(const std::vector<uint8_t>& in, std::string* out,
+    bool hive_compat = false);
 
 // Utility method to decode a string that was URL-encoded. Returns
 // true unless the string could not be correctly decoded.
-bool UrlDecode(const std::string& in, std::string* out);
+// The optional parameter hive_compat controls whether or not we treat
+// the strings as encoded by Hive, which means selectively ignoring
+// certain characters like ' '.
+bool UrlDecode(const std::string& in, std::string* out, bool hive_compat = false);
 
 // Utility method to encode input as base-64 encoded.  This is not
 // very performant (multiple string copies) and should not be used
diff --git a/testdata/workloads/functional-query/queries/QueryTest/insert.test b/testdata/workloads/functional-query/queries/QueryTest/insert.test
index 88c88b951..e0514142e 100644
--- a/testdata/workloads/functional-query/queries/QueryTest/insert.test
+++ b/testdata/workloads/functional-query/queries/QueryTest/insert.test
@@ -454,3 +454,21 @@ string, string
 ---- RESULTS
 'value','/\%.'
 ====
+---- QUERY
+# static partition insert into string-partitioned table with non-escaped special characters
+# (Hive chooses not to escape + and ' ')
+INSERT INTO TABLE insert_string_partitioned PARTITION(s2="_.~ +")
+SELECT "value" FROM alltypessmall LIMIT 1;
+---- SETUP
+DROP PARTITIONS insert_string_partitioned
+---- RESULTS
+s2=_.~ +/: 1
+====
+---- QUERY
+# select with unencoded partition key
+SELECT * FROM insert_string_partitioned;
+---- TYPES
+string, string
+---- RESULTS
+'value','_.~ +'
+====