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Expenditure incidence in Africa: microeconomic evidence

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Author Info
David E. Sahn
Stephen D. Younger
Abstract

In this paper, we examine the progressivity of social sector expenditures in eight sub-Saharan African countries. We employ dominance tests, complemented by extended Gini/concentration coefficients, to determine whether health and education expenditures redistribute resources to the poor. We find that social services are poorly targeted. Among the services examined, primary education tends to be most progressive and university education is least progressive. The benefits associated with hospital care are also less progressive than other health facilities. Our results also show that, while concentration curves are a useful way to summarise information on the distributional benefits of government expenditures, statistical testing of differences in curves is important.

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Publisher Info
Article provided by Institute for Fiscal Studies in its journal Fiscal Studies.

Volume (Year): 21 (2000)
Issue (Month): 3 (September)
Pages: 329-347
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Handle: RePEc:ifs:fistud:v:21:y:2000:i:3:p:329-347

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
O1 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty

References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 1983. "On an Extension of the Gini Inequality Index," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 24(3), pages 617-28, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Russell Davidson & Jean-Yves Duclos, 1997. "Statistical Inference for the Measurement of the Incidence of Taxes and Transfers," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(6), pages 1453-1466, November.
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  3. Jenkins, Stephen P & Lambert, Peter J, 1993. "Ranking Income Distributions When Needs Differ," Review of Income and Wealth, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 39(4), pages 337-56, December.
  4. David E. Sahn & Stephen D. Younger, 1999. "Dominance Testing of Social Sector Expenditures and Taxes in Africa," IMF Working Papers 99/172, International Monetary Fund.
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Magnus Lindelow, 2004. "Sometimes More Equal than Others How the choice of welfare indicator can affect the measurement of health inequalities and the incidence of public spending," Development and Comp Systems 0409018, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  2. Tabi Atemnkeng Johannes & Tafah Akwi & Peter Etoh Anzah, 2006. "The Distributive Impact of Fiscal Policy in Cameroon: Tax and Benefit Incidence," Cahiers de recherche PMMA 2006-16, PEP-PMMA. [Downloadable!]
  3. Wagstaff, Adam, 2002. "Inequalities in health in developing countries - swimming against the tide?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2795, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  4. Magnus Lindelow, 2004. "The Utilization of Curative Health Care in Mozambique: Does Income Matter?," Development and Comp Systems 0409057, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  5. Ronelle Burger & Christelle Swanepoel, 2006. "Have pro-poor health policies improved the targeting of spending and the effective delivery of health care in South Africa?," Working Papers 12/2006, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  6. Menno Pradhan & David E. Sahn & Stephen D. Younger, 2001. "Decomposing World Health Inequality," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 01-091/2, Tinbergen Institute. [Downloadable!]
  7. Magnus Lindelow, 2006. "Sometimes more equal than others: how health inequalities depend on the choice of welfare indicator," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(3), pages 263-279. [Downloadable!]
  8. Ronelle Burger, 2007. "Policy Brief: How pro-poor is the South African Health System?," Working Papers 06/2007, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  9. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2001. "The Impact of Budgets on the Poor: Tax and Benefit," International Studies Program Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0110, International Studies Program, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University. [Downloadable!]
  10. Rogers, F. Halsey & Bourguignon, Francois, 2007. "Distributional effects of educational improvements :are we using the wrong model ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4427, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  11. Lindelow, Magnus, 2004. "Sometimes more equal than others : how health inequalities depend on the choice of welfare indicator," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3329, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  12. Richard M Bird & Joosung Jun, 2005. "Earmarking in Theory and Korean Practice," International Tax Program Papers 0513, International Tax Program, Institute for International Business, Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. [Downloadable!]
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