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Public Social Spending in Africa: Do the Poor Benefit?

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Author Info
Castro-Leal, Florencia
Dayton, Julia
Demery, Lionel
Mehra, Kalpana
Abstract

Education and health care are basic services essential in any effort to combat poverty and are often subsidized with public funds to help achieve that purpose. This paper examines the effectiveness of public social spending on education and health care in several African countries and finds that this targeting problem cannot be solved simply by adjusting the subsidy program. The constraints that prevent the poor from taking advantage of these services must also be addressed if the public subsidies are to be effective. Copyright 1999 by Oxford University Press.

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Article provided by Oxford University Press in its journal World Bank Research Observer.

Volume (Year): 14 (1999)
Issue (Month): 1 (February)
Pages: 49-72
Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Handle: RePEc:oup:wbrobs:v:14:y:1999:i:1:p:49-72

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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. Case, Anne & Deaton, Angus, 1998. "Large Cash Transfers to the Elderly in South Africa," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(450), pages 1330-61, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Deaton, Angus S & Muellbauer, John, 1986. "On Measuring Child Costs: With Applications to Poor Countries," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(4), pages 720-44, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Lavy, V., 1992. "Investment in Human Capital; Schooling Supply Contraints in Rural Ghana," Papers 93, World Bank - Living Standards Measurement.
  4. Jere Behrman & James C. Knowles, . "How Strongly is Child Schooling Associated with Household Income?," CARESS Working Papres 97-22, University of Pennsylvania Center for Analytic Research and Economics in the Social Sciences. [Downloadable!]
  5. Glewwe, P. & Jacoby, H., 1992. "Estimating the Determinants of Cognitive Achivement in Low-Income Countries," Papers 91, World Bank - Living Standards Measurement.
  6. Lanjouw, Peter & Ravallion, Martin & DEC, 1994. "Poverty and household size," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1332, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  7. Brennan, Geoffrey, 1976. "The Distributional Implications of Public Goods," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(2), pages 391-99, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Aaron, Henry & McGuire, Martin, 1970. "Public Goods and Income Distribution," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 38(6), pages 907-20, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Alderman, Harold & Lavy, Victor, 1996. "Household Responses to Public Health Services: Cost and Quality Tradeoffs," World Bank Research Observer, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(1), pages 3-22, February.
  10. Gertler, Paul & Glewwe, Paul, 1990. "The willingness to pay for education in developing countries : Evidence from rural Peru," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 251-275, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Bruno, Michael & Ravallion, Martin & Squire, Lyn, 1996. "Equity and growth in developing countries : old and new perspectives on the policy issues," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1563, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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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. Rohini Somanathan & Isha Dewan, 2003. "Identifying targeting with nonparametric methods: An application to an Indian microfinance program," Indian Statistical Institute, Planning Unit, New Delhi Discussion Papers 03-11, Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi, India. [Downloadable!]
  2. Essama-Nssah, B., 2008. "Assessing the redistributive effect of fiscal policy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4592, The World Bank. [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. Philip Nel, 2006. "When Can the Rabble Redistribute? Democratization and Income Distribution in Low- and Middle-income Countries," Working Papers 43, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality. [Downloadable!]
  5. Winnie Yip & Peter Berman, 2001. "Targeted health insurance in a low income country and its impact on access and equity in access: Egypt's school health insurance," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(3), pages 207-220. [Downloadable!]
  6. Bigsten , Arne & Levin, Jörgen, 2000. "Growth, Income Distribution, and Poverty: A Review," Working Papers in Economics 32, Göteborg University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Muhammad Sabir, 2002. "Gender and Public Spending on Education in Pakistan: A Case Study of Disaggregated Benefit Incidence," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 41(4), pages 477-493. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Sakellariou, Chris & Patrinos, Harry Anthony, 2004. "Incidence analysis of public support to the private education sector in Cote d'Ivoire," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3231, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  9. Addison, Tony & Rahman, Aminur, 2001. "Why is so Little Spent on Educating the Poor?," Working Papers UNU-WIDER Research Paper , World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER). [Downloadable!]
  10. Killick, Tony, 2001. "Poverty-Reducing Institutional Change and PRSP Processes: The Ghana Case," Working Papers UNU-WIDER Research Paper , World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER). [Downloadable!]
  11. Al-Samarrai, Samer & Zaman, Hassan, 2000. "Abolishing school fees in Malawi: the impact on education access and equity," MPRA Paper 130, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2006. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  12. Tony Addison, 2007. "Why is so Little Spent on Educating the Poor?," Working Papers id:1080, esocialsciences.com. [Downloadable!]
  13. McKay, Andrew, 2002. "Assessing the Impact of Fiscal Policy on Poverty," Working Papers UNU-WIDER Research Paper , World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER). [Downloadable!]
  14. Emmanuel Aggrey-Fynn & Godsway Banini & Andre Croppenstedt & Yvonne Owusu-Agyapong & George Oduru, 2003. "Explaining Success in Reducing Under-Nourishment Numbers in Ghana," Working Papers 03-10, Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO - ESA). [Downloadable!]
  15. 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!]
    Other versions:
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