IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/
MyIDEAS: Log in (now much improved!) to save this paper

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

Author Info

  • Erwin H Tiongson
  • Hamid R Davoodi
  • Sawitree S. Asawanuchit
Registered author(s):

    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.

    Download Info

    If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

    File URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=16940
    Download Restriction: no

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

    as
    in new window

    Length: 48
    Date of creation: 01 Nov 2003
    Date of revision:
    Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:03/227
    Contact details of provider: Postal:
    International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC USA

    Phone: (202) 623-7000
    Fax: (202) 623-4661
    Web page: http://www.imf.org/external/pubind.htm
    Email:


    More information through EDIRC

    Order Information: Web: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/pubs/ord_info.htm

    Keywords: Education; benefit incidence; public spending on education and health; targeting; progressivity; health spending; health care; public spending; incidence of public spending; National Government Expenditures and Health; National Government Expenditures and Education;

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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.:

    as in new window
    1. Easterly, William, 2001. "The Middle Class Consensus and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 317-35, December.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Tanzi, Vito & Zee, Howell H., 2000. "Tax Policy for Emerging Markets: Developing Countries," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 53(n. 2), pages 299-322, June.
    6. 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.
    7. O'Higgins, Michael & Ruggles, Patricia, 1981. "The Distribution of Public Expenditures and Taxes among Households in the United Kingdom," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 27(3), pages 298-326, September.
    8. 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.
    9. Kaufmann, Daniel & Kraay, Aart & Zoido-Lobaton, Pablo, 1999. "Aggregating governance indicators," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2195, The World Bank.
    10. 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.
    11. Psacharopoulos, George, 1994. "Returns to investment in education: A global update," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 22(9), pages 1325-1343, September.
    12. Lanjouw, Peter & Ravallion, Martin, 1999. "Benefit Incidence, Public Spending Reforms, and the Timing of Program Capture," World Bank Economic Review, World Bank Group, vol. 13(2), pages 257-73, May.
    13. Ke-young Chu & Hamid R Davoodi & Sanjeev Gupta, 2000. "Income Distribution and Tax and Government Social Spending Policies in Developing Countries," IMF Working Papers 00/62, International Monetary Fund.
    14. Ravallion, Martin, 1999. "Are poorer states worse at targeting their poor?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 373-377, December.
    15. Benedict J. Clements & Gabriela Inchauste & Nita Thacker & Thomas William Dorsey & Shamsuddin Tareq & Emanuele Baldacci & Sanjeev Gupta & Mark W. Plant, 2002. "Is the PRGF Living Up to Expectations?," IMF Occasional Papers 216, International Monetary Fund.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.

    as in new window


    Cited by:

    1. Rolf Maier, 2005. "External Debt and Pro-Poor Growth," Macroeconomics 0504031, EconWPA.
    2. Manasan, Rosario G. & Cuenca, Janet S. & Villanueva-Ruiz, Eden C., 2009. "Benefit Incidence of Public Spending on Education in the Philippines," Philippine Journal of Development PJD 2007 Vol. XXXIV No. 2, Philippine Institute for Development Studies.
    3. Manasan, Rosario G. & Cuenca, Janet S. & Villanueva-Ruiz, Eden C., 2008. "Benefit Incidence of Public Spending on Education in the Philippines," Discussion Papers DP 2008-08, Philippine Institute for Development Studies.
    4. Rolf Maier, 2005. "Trade Policy and Pro-Poor Growth," International Trade 0504007, EconWPA.
    5. Mark Gradstein & Era Dabla-Norris, 2004. "The Distributional Bias of Public Education; Causes and Consequences," IMF Working Papers 04/214, International Monetary Fund.
    6. Kausik K. Bhadra, 2016. "Inequality Effects of Fiscal Policy: Analysing the Benefit Incidence on Health Sector in India," Working Papers id:8433, eSocialSciences.
    7. Muhammad Akram & Faheem Jehangir Khan, 2007. "Public Provision of Education and Government Spending in Pakistan," Governance Working Papers 22183, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    8. Cuenca, Janet S., 2008. "Benefit Incidence Analysis of Public Spending on Education in the Philippines: A Methodological Note," Discussion Papers DP 2008-09, Philippine Institute for Development Studies.
    9. Chakraborty, Lekha & Singh, Yadawendra & Jacob, Jannet Farida, 2012. "Public Expenditure Benefit Incidence on Health: Selective Evidence from India," Working Papers 12/111, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    10. Runu Bhatka, 2016. "Educational Attainment of Young Adults in India: Measures, Trends and Determinants," Working Papers id:8435, eSocialSciences.
    11. Paulo Silva Lopes, 2005. "The Disconcerting Pyramids of Poverty and Inequality of Sub-Saharan Africa," IMF Working Papers 05/47, International Monetary Fund.
    12. Essama-Nssah, B., 2008. "Assessing the redistributive effect of fiscal policy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4592, The World Bank.
    13. Olomola, Aderbigbe & Mogues, Tewodaj & Olofinbiyi, Tolulope & Nwoko, Chinedum & Udoh, Edet & Alabi, Reuben Adeolu & Onu, Justice & Woldeyohannes, Sileshi, 2014. "Analysis of agricultural public expenditures in Nigeria: Examination at the federal, state, and local government levels:," IFPRI discussion papers 1395, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    14. Bernadette Kamgnia Dia & Simon Leunkeu Wangun & Christophe Tatsinkou & Josephine Afor, 2008. "Bénéfices acquis et ciblage des pauvres dans les dépenses publiques de santé et d'éducation au Cameroun," Working Papers PMMA 2008-08, PEP-PMMA.
    15. Maier, Rolf, 2005. "External Debt and Pro-Poor Growth," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Kiel 2005 23, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    16. Benedict J. Clements & Christopher Faircloth & Marijn Verhoeven, 2007. "Public Expenditure in Latin America; Trends and Key Policy Issues," IMF Working Papers 07/21, International Monetary Fund.
    17. Gul, Adnan, 2008. "Is external debt an effective way of bringing economic reforms?," MPRA Paper 10979, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Manasan, Rosario G. & Cuenca, Janet S. & Villanueva-Ruiz, Eden C., 2007. "Benefit Incidence of Public Spending on Education in the Philippines," Discussion Papers DP 2007-09, Philippine Institute for Development Studies.
    19. Waseem IKRAM & Khalid ZAMAN & Mehboob AHMAD & Mohammad Raza Ullah Khan NIAZI, 2011. "The Study Of Healthcare Assessment In Pakistan (1991-2007)," Review of Economic and Business Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, issue 7, pages 225-237, May.
    20. 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," Working Papers PMMA 2007-11, PEP-PMMA.
    21. Janet Gale Stotsky, 2006. "Gender Budgeting," IMF Working Papers 06/232, International Monetary Fund.

    This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

    Access and download statistics

    When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:03/227. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Jim Beardow)

    or (Hassan Zaidi)

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

    If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis using RePEc data.