Government Expenditures on Education, Health, and Infrastructure : A Naive Look at Levels, Outcomes, and Efficiency

All interested parties seem to agree that it is important to be able to monitor public sector performance at the sectoral level, but most current work based on multi-country databases does not lend itself to country-specific conclusions. This is due to a large extent to major data limitations both on sectoral expenditures and on sectoral outcomes. This paper discusses the related issues and shows what we can do with the current data inspite of the drastic limitations. The main conclusions of the paper are that any efforts to assess country-specific performances in relative terms are likely to be difficult in view of the data problems. A rough sense of performance across sectors can be estimated for groups of countries, allowing some modest benchmarking exercises. These estimates show that low-income countries generally lag significantly behind higher-income countries. Efficiency has improved during the 1990s in energy and education but has not improved significantly in transport.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Estache, Antonio, Gonzalez, Marianela, Trujillo, Lourdes
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2007-05
Subjects:	ACCOUNTABILITY, ACCOUNTING, ADJUSTMENT PROGRAMS, AIR, AIR TRAFFIC, AIRCRAFT, ALLOCATION, ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES, AVERAGE SHARE, BENCHMARK, BENCHMARKING, BENCHMARKS, CAP, CAPITAL EXPENDITURES, CAPITAL STOCK, CENTRAL GOVERNMENT, CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE, CIVIL SERVANTS, COMPETITION POLICY, CONSTANT PRICES, COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS, COST-EFFECTIVENESS, COUNTRY LEVEL, COUNTRY PERFORMANCE, CROSS-COUNTRY DATA, CROSS-COUNTRY STUDIES, DATA ON CORRUPTION, DATA QUALITY, DATA SET, DECENTRALIZATION, DEREGULATION, DEVELOPED COUNTRIES, DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, DISTRIBUTION OF EXPENDITURES, EDUCATION SERVICES, EFFECTIVENESS OF SERVICE DELIVERY, EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENTS, EFFICIENCY OF GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE, ELASTICITIES, EMPIRICAL APPLICATION, EMPIRICAL LITERATURE, EXPENDITURE CATEGORIES, EXPENDITURE DATA, EXPENDITURE LEVELS, FINANCIAL MARKETS, FISCAL ADJUSTMENT, FUEL, FUNCTIONAL FORM, GDP, GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES, GOVERNMENT FINANCE, GOVERNMENT FINANCE STATISTICS, GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE, HEALTH EXPENDITURE, INCOME, INCOME GROUPS, INCOME LEVEL, INCOME MEAN, INEFFICIENCY, INFANT MORTALITY, INFRASTRUCTURE SECTOR, INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES, INTERVENTION, LENGTH OF ROAD, LEVELS OF EFFICIENCY, LIFE EXPECTANCY, LOW INCOME, MONETARY DATA, MORTALITY RATES, MULTILATERAL DONORS, NATIONAL POLICIES, NEGATIVE TERMS, OPERATIONAL EXPENDITURES, OUTCOME DATA, OUTCOME INDICATORS, OUTCOME MEASURES, OUTPUT INDICATORS, PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENTS, PERFORMANCE IN EDUCATION, POLICY RESEARCH, POLITICAL SCIENTISTS, POWER PARITY, PRIVATE SECTOR, PRODUCTION FUNCTION, PRODUCTIVE SECTOR, PROGRAMS, PUBLIC ENTERPRISES, PUBLIC EXPENDITURE, PUBLIC EXPENDITURE IN TRANSPORT, PUBLIC EXPENDITURES, PUBLIC SECTOR, PURCHASING POWER, QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENTS, RAIL, RECURRENT EXPENDITURES, RELATIVE IMPORTANCE, RELATIVE POSITION, RESOURCE ALLOCATION, ROAD NETWORK, ROAD SECTOR, ROADS, SAMPLE SIZE, SANITATION, SECTOR EXPENDITURE, SECTORAL ALLOCATION, SECTORAL BUDGET, SECTORAL COMPOSITION, SECTORAL EXPENDITURE, SECTORAL POLICIES, SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES, TAXPAYERS, TOLL, TOTAL EXPENDITURE, TRANSPORT, TRANSPORT = INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT SECTOR,
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2007/05/7550996/government-expenditures-education-health-infrastructure-naive-look-levels-outcomes-efficiency https://hdl.handle.net/10986/7066
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