IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imf/imfwpa/2003-227.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

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

Author

Listed:
  • Mr. Erwin H Tiongson
  • Mr. Hamid R Davoodi
  • Sawitree S. Asawanuchit

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Mr. Erwin H Tiongson & Mr. Hamid R Davoodi & Sawitree S. Asawanuchit, 2003. "How Useful Are Benefit Incidence Analyses of Public Education and Health Spending," IMF Working Papers 2003/227, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2003/227
    as

    Download full text from publisher

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Atkinson, Anthony B., 2000. "Increased Income Inequality in OECD Countries and the Redistributive Impact of the Government Budget," WIDER Working Papers 295534, United Nations University, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Mr. Ke-young Chu & Mr. Hamid R Davoodi & Mr. Sanjeev Gupta, 2000. "Income Distribution and Tax and Government Social Spending Policies in Developing Countries," IMF Working Papers 2000/062, International Monetary Fund.
    3. 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.
    4. 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 and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 5(1), pages 89-112, Spring.
    5. Ravallion, Martin, 1999. "Are poorer states worse at targeting their poor?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 373-377, December.
    6. 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.
    7. Lanjouw, Peter & Ravallion, Martin, 1999. "Benefit Incidence, Public Spending Reforms, and the Timing of Program Capture," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 13(2), pages 257-273, May.
    8. Easterly, William, 2001. "The Middle Class Consensus and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 317-335, December.
    9. Chu, Ke-Young & Davoodi, Hamid & Gupta, Sanjeev, 2000. "Income Distribution and Tax, and Government Social Spending Policies in Developing Countries," WIDER Working Papers 295547, United Nations University, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Mr. David E. Sahn & Mr. Stephen D. Younger, 1999. "Dominance Testing of Social Sector Expenditures and Taxes in Africa," IMF Working Papers 1999/172, International Monetary Fund.
    11. Psacharopoulos, George, 1994. "Returns to investment in education: A global update," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 22(9), pages 1325-1343, September.
    12. 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.
    13. Tanzi, Vito & Zee, Howell H., 2000. "Tax Policy for Emerging Markets: Developing Countries," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 53(2), pages 299-322, June.
    14. Ke-Young Chu & Hamid Davoodi & Sanjeev Gupta, 2000. "Income Distribution and Tax, and Government Social Spending Policies in Developing Countries," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2000-214, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    15. Michael O'Higgins & Patricia Ruggles, 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.
    16. Kaufmann, Daniel & Kraay, Aart & Zoido-Lobaton, Pablo, 1999. "Aggregating governance indicators," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2195, The World Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Hamid R. Davoodi & Erwin R Tiongson & Sawitree Sachjapinan Asawanuchit, 2010. "Benefit Incidence of Public Education and Health Spending Worldwide: Evidence From A New Database," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 2(2), pages 5-52, May.
    2. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2001. "The Impact of Budgets on the Poor: Tax and Benefit," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0110, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    3. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2007. "Budget Policy and Income Distribution," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0707, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    4. Feltenstein, Andrew & Mejia, Carolina & Newhouse, David & Sedrakyan, Gohar, 2017. "The poverty implications of alternative tax reforms: Results from a numerical application to Pakistan," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 12-31.
    5. Bird, Richard M. & Zolt, Eric M., 2011. "Dual Income Taxation: A Promising Path to Tax Reform for Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 1691-1703.
    6. Guillermo E. Perry & William F. Maloney & Omar S. Arias & Pablo Fajnzylber & Andrew D. Mason & Jaime Saavedra-Chanduvi, 2007. "Informality : Exit and Exclusion," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6730.
    7. Ms. Sònia Muñoz & Stanley Sang-Wook Cho, 2003. "Social Impact of a Tax Reform: The Case of Ethiopia," IMF Working Papers 2003/232, International Monetary Fund.
    8. Cabrera, Maynor & Lustig, Nora & Morán, Hilcías E., 2015. "Fiscal Policy, Inequality, and the Ethnic Divide in Guatemala," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 263-279.
    9. Iris Claus & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & VIoleta Vulovic, 2012. "Government Fiscal Policies and Redistribution in Asian Countries," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1213, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    10. Giovanni Andrea Cornia, 2005. "Policy Reform and Income Distribution," Working Papers 3, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    11. Ramanjini & Karnam Gayithri, 2019. "Who benefits from higher education expenditure? Evidence from recent household survey of India," Working Papers 454, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore.
    12. Lopez, Ramon & Galinato, Gregmar I., 2007. "Should governments stop subsidies to private goods? Evidence from rural Latin America," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(5-6), pages 1071-1094, June.
    13. Ramón López, 2007. "Fiscal policies in highly unequal societies: implications for agricultural growth," The Electronic Journal of Agricultural and Development Economics, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, vol. 4(1), pages 123-145.
    14. Herwig Immervoll & Horacio Levy & José Ricardo Nogueira & Cathal O´Donoghue & Rozane Bezerra de Siqueira, 2005. "The Impact of Brazil´s Tax-Benefit System on Inequality and Poverty," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 117, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    15. Marina Dodlova & Anna Gioblas, 2017. "Regime type, inequality, and redistributive transfers in developing countries," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-30, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    16. Kalle Hirvonen & Giulia Mascagni & Keetie Roelen, 2018. "Linking taxation and social protection: Evidence on redistribution and poverty reduction in Ethiopia," International Social Security Review, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 71(1), pages 3-24, January.
    17. Sonali Jain-Chandra & Tidiane Kinda & Kalpana Kochhar & Shi Piao & Johanna Schauer, 2019. "Sharing the Growth Dividend: Analysis of Inequality in Asia," Journal of Banking and Financial Economics, University of Warsaw, Faculty of Management, vol. 2(12), pages 5-28, September.
    18. Conrad Scheibe, 2016. "Fiscal Consolidations and Their Effects on Income Inequality," UCL SSEES Economics and Business working paper series 2016-4, UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES).
    19. Cont, Walter & Porto, Alberto, 2014. "Personal and regional redistribution through public finance in a federal setting," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 563-578.
    20. Céline DE QUATREBARBES & Luc SAVARD & Dorothée BOCCANFUSO, 2011. "Can the removal of VAT Exemptions support the Poor? The Case of Niger," Working Papers 201106, CERDI.

    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:imf:imfwpa:2003/227. 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: Akshay Modi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imfffus.html .

    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.