IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jintdv/v14y2002i8p1105-1116.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public spending for children: an empirical note

Author

Listed:
  • Santosh Mehrotra

    (Senior Economic Advisor, Innocenti Research Centre, Unicef, Florence, USA)

  • Enrique Delamonica

    (Programme Officer Policy Analysis, Unicef, New York, USA)

Abstract

It is often said that economic growth promotes poverty reduction, social development and child welfare, but it is rarely argued that this conditional relationship applies in reverse. Direct action to improve child health and education may be as strong as economic growth in reducing income-poverty. Without specific policies to ensure access to basic social services (BSS) like basic health, primary education access to safe water-services which directly improve children's lives-economic growth seldom improves the quality of life of the whole population. Thus, it becomes crucial to measure and monitor the allocation of public spending to BSS. In this paper, based on research carried out by UNDP and UNICEF in more than 30 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America, we summarise some findings of these studies. The figures vary among countries and through time, but public expenditure on BSS is, on average, between 12 and 14 per cent of government spending. Such low fiscal priority to these services partly accounts for the poor health and education outcomes. In many low-income, highly indebted countries, the low level of spending is explained by the lack of fiscal space. Hence the need for debt cancellation at a faster pace than achieved through the HIPC Initiative so far. Data on the use of education and health services by different groups show inequities in the distribution of public spending. This inequity negatively affects overall outcomes. We also look at the allocation of foreign assistance to BSS. ODA has been declining, as a proportion of the output of industrialised countries, since the early 1980s. Within this shrinking total, no DAC country's combined allocation for BSS exceeded 16.5 per cent of ODA. Hence also the need for rapid increases in ODA for basic services. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Santosh Mehrotra & Enrique Delamonica, 2002. "Public spending for children: an empirical note," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(8), pages 1105-1116.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:14:y:2002:i:8:p:1105-1116
    DOI: 10.1002/jid.952
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/jid.952
    File Function: Link to full text; subscription required
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/jid.952?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tanzi,Vito & Schuknecht,Ludger, 2000. "Public Spending in the 20th Century," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521662918, October.
    2. Mehrotra, S., 1998. "Education for All: Policy Lessons from High-Achieving Countries," Papers 98-005, California Los Angeles - Applied Econometrics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Jacob, Jannet Farida & Chakraborty, Lekha, 2021. "COVID-19 and Public Investment for Children: The case of Indian State of Karnataka," Working Papers 21/355, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    2. Yusuke Kamiya, 2010. "Determinants of Health in Developing Countries:Cross-Country Evidence," OSIPP Discussion Paper 10E009, Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University.
    3. Caroline Harper, 2002. "Recent approaches to understanding policy and action for eradicating childhood poverty," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(8), pages 1075-1079.
    4. John Gafar, 2005. "Do the Poor Benefit from Public Spending? A Look at the Evidence," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 44(1), pages 81-104.
    5. McGuire, James W., 2006. "Basic health care provision and under-5 mortality: A Cross-National study of developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 405-425, March.
    6. Jacob, Jannet Farida & Chakraborty, Lekha S, 2021. "Public Finance for Children: The case of Indian State of Karnataka," MPRA Paper 109520, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Aug 2021.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andersen, Torben M., 2006. "The public sector and international integration," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 202-209, November.
    2. Gonzalez-Eiras, Martín & Niepelt, Dirk, 2012. "Ageing, government budgets, retirement, and growth," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 97-115.
    3. Photis Lysandrou, 2016. "The colonization of the future: An alternative view of financialization and its portents," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(4), pages 444-472, October.
    4. Torsten Persson & Guido Tabellini, "undated". "Political Institutions and Policy Outcomes: What are the Stylized Facts?," Working Papers 189, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
    5. Vojtěch Roženský, 2012. "Mandatorní výdaje a flexibilita fiskální politiky v ČR [Mandatory Expenditure and the Flexibility of Fiscal Policy in the Czech Republic]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2012(1), pages 40-57.
    6. Dan Anderberg, 2007. "Inefficient households and the mix of government spending," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 131(1), pages 127-140, April.
    7. Seid, Yared, 2016. "Does learning in mother tongue matter? Evidence from a natural experiment in Ethiopia," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 21-38.
    8. Andersen, Torben M. & Bhattacharya, Joydeep & Gestsson, Marias H., 2021. "Pareto-improving transition to fully funded pensions under myopia," Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 87(2), pages 169-212, June.
    9. Lora, Eduardo, 2008. "El futuro de los pactos fiscales en América Latina," Coediciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1310, May.
    10. Antonio Di Majo, 2020. "Budgeting pubblico, democrazia di bilancio, governo delle finanze pubbliche: la storia di una complessa interazione (Public budgeting, budet democracy, and public finances governance: History of a com," Moneta e Credito, Economia civile, vol. 73(291), pages 237-259.
    11. Ant—nio Afonso & Ludger Schuknecht & Vito Tanzi, 2023. "The size of government," Chapters, in: António Afonso & João Tovar Jalles & Ana Venâncio (ed.), Handbook on Public Sector Efficiency, chapter 1, pages 6-31, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Bedri Peci, 2016. "Fiscal Transparency In Theory And Practice: The Case Of Kosovo," International Journal of Business and Management, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences, vol. 4(4), pages 78-91, November.
    13. Christl, Michael & Köppl-Turyna, Monika & Kucsera, Dénes, 2018. "Public sector efficiency in Europe: Long-run trends, recent developments and determinants," Working Papers 14, Agenda Austria.
    14. Gaspar, Ví­tor & Afonso, António, 2006. "Excess burden and the cost of inefficiency in public services provision," Working Paper Series 601, European Central Bank.
    15. Murtin, Fabrice & Viarengo, Martina, 2008. "The convergence of compulsory schooling in Western Europe: 1950-2000," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 23311, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Greasley, David & McLaughlin, Eoin & Hanley, Nick & Oxley, Les, 2017. "Australia: a land of missed opportunities?," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(6), pages 674-698, December.
    17. Anthony J. Makin, 2014. "The Paradoxes and Pitfalls of Revived Fiscal Activism," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 59-67, February.
    18. Marc Audi & Amjad Ali, 2023. "Public Policy and Economic Misery Nexus: A Comparative Analysis of Developed and Developing World," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 13(3), pages 56-73, May.
    19. Asem Alshami, 2016. "Theoretical Evidences Regarding Methodologies Of Calculating Efficiency Of Public Sector," Management Strategies Journal, Constantin Brancoveanu University, vol. 34(4), pages 88-94.
    20. Alberto Alesina & Ignazio Angeloni & Ludger Schuknecht, 2005. "What does the European Union do?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 123(3), pages 275-319, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:14:y:2002:i:8:p:1105-1116. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc 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 RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/5102/home .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.