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How Useful are Benefit Incidence Analyses of Public Education and Health Spending

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Author Info
Sawitree S. Asawanuchit
Hamid Reza Davoodi
Erwin Tiongson
Abstract

This paper provides a primer on benefit incidence analysis (BIA) for macroeconomists and a new data set on the benefit incidence of education and health spending covering 56 countries over 1960-2000, representing a significant improvement in quality and coverage over existing compilations. The paper demonstrates the usefulness of BIA in two dimensions. First, the paper finds, among other things, that overall education and health spending are poorly targeted; benefits from primary education and primary health care go disproportionately to the middle class, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, HIPCs and transition economies; but targeting has improved in the 1990s. Second, simple measures of association show that countries with a more propoor incidence of education and health spending tend to have better education and health outcomes, good governance, high per capita income, and wider accessibility to information. The paper explores policy implications of these findings.

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Paper provided by International Monetary Fund in its series IMF Working Papers with number 03/227.

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Length: 47 pages
Date of creation: 05 Dec 2003
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:03/227

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Related research
Keywords: Government expenditures ; Developing countries ; Education ; Health care ;

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References listed on IDEAS
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. Wagstaff, Adam & van Doorslaer, Eddy & Paci, Pierella, 1989. "Equity in the Finance and Delivery of Health Care: Some Tentative Cross-country Comparisons," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 5(1), pages 89-112, Spring.
  2. Vito Tanzi & Howell H. Zee, 2000. "Tax Policy for Emerging Markets - Developing Countries," IMF Working Papers 00/35, International Monetary Fund.
  3. Chu, K.-y. & Davoodi, H. & Gupta, S., 2000. "Income Distribution and Tax, and Government Social Spending Policies in Developing Countries," Research Paper 214, World Institute for Development Economics Research.
  4. O'Higgins, Michael & Ruggles, Patricia, 1981. "The Distribution of Public Expenditures and Taxes among Households in the United Kingdom," Review of Income and Wealth, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 27(3), pages 298-326, September.
  5. Ravallion, Martin, 1999. "Are poorer states worse at targeting their poor?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 373-377, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Atkinson, A.B., 2000. "Increased Income Inequality in OECD Countries and the Redistributive Impact of the Government Budget," Research Paper 202, World Institute for Development Economics Research.
  7. Ke-young Chu & Hamid Reza Davoodi & Sanjeev Gupta, 2000. "Income Distribution and Tax and Government Social Spending Policies in Developing Countries," IMF Working Papers 00/62, International Monetary Fund.
  8. Filmer, Deon & Hammer, Jeffrey & Pritchett, Lant, 1998. "Health policy in poor countries : weak links in the chain," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1874, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  9. Psacharopoulos, George, 1994. "Returns to investment in education: A global update," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 22(9), pages 1325-1343, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. 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.
  11. Emanuele Baldacci & Benedict J. Clements & Thomas William Dorsey & Sanjeev Gupta & Gabriela Inchauste & Mark W. Plant & Shamsuddin Tareq & Nita Thacker, 2002. "Is the PRGF Living Up to Expectations?," IMF Occasional Papers 216, International Monetary Fund.
  12. Devarajan, Shantayanan & Hossain, Shaikh I., 1998. "The combined incidence of taxes and public expenditures in the Philippines," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 963-977, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Easterly, William, 2001. " The Middle Class Consensus and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 317-35, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  14. Kaufmann, Daniel & Kraay, Aart & Zoido-Lobaton, Pablo, 1999. "Aggregating governance indicators," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2195, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  15. Lanjouw, Peter & Ravallion, Martin, 1999. "Benefit Incidence, Public Spending Reforms, and the Timing of Program Capture," World Bank Economic Review, Oxford University Press, vol. 13(2), pages 257-73, May.
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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. Janet Gale Stotsky, 2006. "Gender Budgeting," IMF Working Papers 06/232, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
  2. Rolf Maier, 2005. "External Debt and Pro-Poor Growth," Macroeconomics 0504031, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  3. Mark Gradstein & Era Dabla-Norris, 2004. "The Distributional Bias of Public Education: Causes and Consequences," IMF Working Papers 04/214, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
  4. Rolf Maier, 2005. "Trade Policy and Pro-Poor Growth," International Trade 0504007, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  5. Christopher Faircloth & Benedict J. Clements & Marijn Verhoeven, 2007. "Public Expenditure in Latin America: Trends and Key Policy Issues," IMF Working Papers 07/21, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
  6. Nakar Djindil Syntiche & Tabo Symphorien Ndang & Toinar Mogota Anatole, 2007. "A qui profitent les dépenses sociales au Tchad? Une analyse d'incidence à partir des données d'enquête," Cahiers de recherche PMMA 2007-11, PEP-PMMA. [Downloadable!]
  7. Paulo Silva Lopes, 2005. "The Disconcerting Pyramids of Poverty and Inequality of Sub-Saharan Africa," IMF Working Papers 05/47, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
  8. Gul, Adnan, 2008. "Is external debt an effective way of bringing economic reforms?," MPRA Paper 10979, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
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