Public Service Spending: Efficiency and Distributional Impact—Lessons from Asia

Lavado, Rouselle F.; Domingo, Gabriel Angelo | July 2015
Abstract
Efficiency and equity are cornerstone concepts in rational service delivery in the public sector. This paper benchmarks efficiency and equity in public spending on health, education, and social protection in a broad group of Asian Development Bank (ADB) member economies with varying levels of development. We describe public expenditure trends in health, education, and social protection in the region. Following Herrera and Pang (2005), we conduct a formal efficiency benchmarking exercise using Data Envelopment Analysis and available input and output data from World Development Indicators, Government Finance Statistics, and ADB databases to deconstruct each member economy’s efficiency changes in health and education spending. We next turn to review service provision inequality within ADB economies using utilization rates and benefit incidence, and note the deficiency of pro-poor spending in some sectors.
Citation
Lavado, Rouselle F.; Domingo, Gabriel Angelo. 2015. Public Service Spending: Efficiency and Distributional Impact—Lessons from Asia. © Asian Development Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/11540/5040. License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
ISSN
2313-6537 (Print), 2313-6545 (e-ISSN)
Keywords
Public Sector
Economic Development
Infrastructure projects
Public Service
Public Administration
Investment of public funds
Public Management
Public Expenditure
Show all
Citable URI
http://hdl.handle.net/11540/5040
Metadata
Show full item record
Thumbnail
Author
Theme

Users also downloaded

  • Thumbnail

    Myanmar’s Agriculture Sector: Unlocking the Potential for Inclusive Growth 

    Raitzer, David; Wong, Larry C.Y.; Samson, Jindra Nuella (Asian Development Bank, 2015-12-14)
    Myanmar’s agriculture sector offers substantial unexploited potential to underpin the country’s inclusive economic development. This paper proposes key actions to address agricultural constraints including improving land tenure, expanding credit ...
  • Thumbnail

    Financing Asia’s Growth 

    Estrada, Gemma B.; Noland, Marcus; Park, Donghyun; Ramayandi,Arief (Asian Development Bank, 2015-07-21)
    The paper highlights the need to revisit Asia’s financial development for a number of reasons. These include the region’s growth slowdown since the global crisis, compounded by a less benign external environment; internal structural challenges, such ...
  • Thumbnail

    New Economic Geography and Tax Competition in the PRC: A Firm-Level Data Analysis with Policy Implications 

    Lee, Minsoo (Asian Development Bank, 2012-01-01)
    "During 2000–2006, nearly 4,000–5,000 new foreign and domestic enterprises entered the export industry of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) yearly, with geographic concentration along the coastal areas. This paper empirically analyzes the spatial ...