IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imf/imfwpa/2015-178.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Estimation of Drivers of Public Education Expenditure: Baumol’s Effect Revisited

Author

Listed:
  • Manabu Nose

Abstract

This paper analyzes drivers of rising per-pupil public education spending, including Baumol’s “cost disease” effect. Higher wages paid to teachers contributed significantly to the increase in per-pupil spending over the past decades. Empirical analyses using a large dataset of advanced and developing economies show that the contribution of Baumol’s effect was much smaller than impled by theory. Rather, the spending inccrease reflects rising wage premiums paid for teachers in excess of market wages, especially in middle-income countries. The strong wage premium effect suggests that institutional characteristics that govern teachers’ wage setting are key determinants of education expenditure.

Suggested Citation

  • Manabu Nose, 2015. "Estimation of Drivers of Public Education Expenditure: Baumol’s Effect Revisited," IMF Working Papers 2015/178, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2015/178
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=43135
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Adolph Wagner, 1958. "Three Extracts on Public Finance," International Economic Association Series, in: Richard A. Musgrave & Alan T. Peacock (ed.), Classics in the Theory of Public Finance, pages 1-15, Palgrave Macmillan.
    2. Hartwig, Jochen, 2008. "What drives health care expenditure?--Baumol's model of 'unbalanced growth' revisited," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 603-623, May.
    3. International Monetary Fund, 2010. "Evaluating Government Employment and Compensation," IMF Technical Notes and Manuals 2010/015, International Monetary Fund.
    4. Manabu Nose, 2017. "Estimation of drivers of public education expenditure: Baumol’s effect revisited," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 24(3), pages 512-535, June.
    5. Lamartina Serena & Zaghini Andrea, 2011. "Increasing Public Expenditure: Wagner’s Law in OECD Countries," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 12(2), pages 149-164, May.
    6. George Psacharopoulos & Harry Anthony Patrinos, 2004. "Returns to investment in education: a further update," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(2), pages 111-134.
    7. Michael Podgursky & Ruttaya Tongrut, 2006. "(Mis-)Measuring the Relative Pay of Public School Teachers," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 1(4), pages 425-440, September.
    8. Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Lothgren, Mickael, 2000. "On stationarity and cointegration of international health expenditure and GDP," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 461-475, July.
    9. Herrera, Santiago & Pang, Gaobo, 2005. "Efficiency of public spending in developing countries : an efficiency frontier approach," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3645, The World Bank.
    10. Hazans, Mihails, 2010. "Teacher Pay, Class Size and Local Governments: Evidence from the Latvian Reform," IZA Discussion Papers 5291, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Gradstein, Mark & Kaganovich, Michael, 2004. "Aging population and education finance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(12), pages 2469-2485, December.
    12. Wolff, Edward N. & Baumol, William J. & Saini, Anne Noyes, 2014. "A comparative analysis of education costs and outcomes: The United States vs. other OECD countries," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-21.
    13. repec:bla:obuest:v:61:y:1999:i:0:p:631-52 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Nordhaus William D, 2008. "Baumol's Diseases: A Macroeconomic Perspective," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-39, February.
    15. Choi, In, 2001. "Unit root tests for panel data," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 249-272, April.
    16. Jan Kuckuck, 2014. "Testing Wagner's Law at Different Stages of Economic Development," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 70(1), pages 128-168, March.
    17. Glewwe, Paul & Kremer, Michael, 2006. "Schools, Teachers, and Education Outcomes in Developing Countries," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & F. Welch (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 16, pages 945-1017, Elsevier.
    18. Colombier, Carsten, 2012. "Drivers of health care expenditure: Does Baumol's cost disease loom large?," FiFo Discussion Papers - Finanzwissenschaftliche Diskussionsbeiträge 12-5, University of Cologne, FiFo Institute for Public Economics.
    19. Robert J. Lemke, 2004. "Estimating the Union Wage Effect for Public School Teachers When All Teachers Are Unionized," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 30(2), pages 273-291, Spring.
    20. Francesco Grigoli, 2015. "A Hybrid Approach to Estimating the Efficiency of Public Spending on Education in Emerging and Developing Economies," Applied Economics and Finance, Redfame publishing, vol. 2(1), pages 19-32, February.
    21. James M. Poterba, 1997. "Demographic structure and the political economy of public education," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(1), pages 48-66.
    22. Geraint Johnes & Jill Johnes (ed.), 2004. "International Handbook on the Economics of Education," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2847.
    23. Mizala, Alejandra & Nopo, Hugo R., 2012. "Evolution of Teachers' Salaries in Latin America at the Turn of the 20th Century: How Much Are They (Under or Over) Paid?," IZA Discussion Papers 6806, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    24. Hollis Chenery† & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), 1988. "Handbook of Development Economics," Handbook of Development Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    25. Kingdon, Geeta & Teal, Francis, 2010. "Teacher unions, teacher pay and student performance in India: A pupil fixed effects approach," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 278-288, March.
    26. Blaise Melly, 2005. "Public-private sector wage differentials in Germany: Evidence from quantile regression," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 505-520, September.
    27. Michael Rosholm & Helena Skyt Nielsen, 2001. "The public-private sector wage gap in Zambia in the 1990s: A quantile regression approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 169-182.
    28. Eric A. Hanushek & Steven G. Rivkin, 1997. "Understanding the Twentieth-Century Growth in U.S. School Spending," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 32(1), pages 35-68.
    29. Barro, Robert J. & Lee, Jong-Wha, 2015. "Education Matters: Global Schooling Gains from the 19th to the 21st Century," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199379231.
    30. David Mitch, 2004. "School Finance," Chapters, in: Geraint Johnes & Jill Johnes (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Education, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    31. Asadullah, Mohammad Niaz, 2006. "Pay differences between teachers and other occupations: Some empirical evidence from Bangladesh," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 1044-1065, December.
    32. Carrion-i-Silvestre, Josep Lluis, 2005. "Health care expenditure and GDP: Are they broken stationary?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 839-854, September.
    33. Akitoby, Bernardin & Clements, Benedict & Gupta, Sanjeev & Inchauste, Gabriela, 2006. "Public spending, voracity, and Wagner's law in developing countries," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 908-924, December.
    34. Andrea Montanino & Bartosz Przywara & David Young, 2004. "Investment in education: the implications for economic growth and public finances - Andrea Montanino, Bartosz Przywara and David Young," European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 217, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    35. João Medeiros & Christoph Schwierz, 2013. "Estimating the drivers and projecting long-term public health expenditure in the European Union: Baumol's "cost disease" revisited," European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 507, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    36. Gupta, Sanjeev & Verhoeven, Marijn, 2001. "The efficiency of government expenditure: experiences from Africa," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 433-467, May.
    37. Schultz, T. Paul, 1988. "Education investments and returns," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 13, pages 543-630, Elsevier.
    38. International Monetary Fund, 2010. "Evaluating Government Employment and Compensation," IMF Technical Notes and Manuals 10/15, International Monetary Fund.
    39. G. S. Maddala & Shaowen Wu, 1999. "A Comparative Study of Unit Root Tests with Panel Data and a New Simple Test," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 61(S1), pages 631-652, November.
    40. Lovell, Michael C, 1978. "Spending for Education: The Exercise of Public Choice," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 60(4), pages 487-495, November.
    41. Ms. Victoria Gunnarsson & Stéphane Carcillo & Marijn Verhoeven, 2007. "Education and Health in G7 Countries: Achieving Better Outcomes with Less Spending," IMF Working Papers 2007/263, International Monetary Fund.
    42. Bates, Laurie J. & Santerre, Rexford E., 2013. "Does the U.S. health care sector suffer from Baumol's cost disease? Evidence from the 50 states," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 386-391.
    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. Manabu Nose, 2017. "Estimation of drivers of public education expenditure: Baumol’s effect revisited," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 24(3), pages 512-535, June.
    2. Kopańska Agnieszka, 2018. "Partial Fiscal Decentralization and Local Government Spending Policy," Financial Internet Quarterly (formerly e-Finanse), Sciendo, vol. 14(3), pages 21-31, September.
    3. Jyotsna Rosario & K. R. Shanmugam, 2023. "Impact of transfers on elementary education expenditure and measuring equalisation transfers to Indian States," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 141-168, June.
    4. Yang, Jia & Pei, Yu & Qiang, Wei, 2024. "The impact of automation on human capital investment," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(PB).
    5. Jian Song, 2024. "Environmental pollution, manufacturing cost disease and structural change," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(8), pages 21169-21195, August.

    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. Potrafke, Niklas, 2010. "The growth of public health expenditures in OECD countries: Do government ideology and electoral motives matter?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 797-810, December.
    2. Vitor Castro, 2017. "Pure, White and Deadly… Expensive: A Bitter Sweetness in Health Care Expenditure," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(12), pages 1644-1666, December.
    3. Akinwande Atanda & W. Robert Reed, 2019. "Not Evidence for Baumol’s Cost Disease," Working Papers in Economics 19/05, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
    4. Baltagi, Badi H. & Moscone, Francesco, 2010. "Health care expenditure and income in the OECD reconsidered: Evidence from panel data," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 804-811, July.
    5. Niklas Potrafke, 2012. "Political cycles and economic performance in OECD countries: empirical evidence from 1951–2006," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 155-179, January.
    6. Hartwig, Jochen, 2008. "What drives health care expenditure?--Baumol's model of 'unbalanced growth' revisited," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 603-623, May.
    7. Atanda, Akinwande & Reed, W. Robert, 2020. "Not Evidence for Baumol's Cost Disease. A replication study of Hartwig (Journal of Health Economics, 2008)," International Journal for Re-Views in Empirical Economics (IREE), ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 4(2020-1), pages 1-10.
    8. Ärshiya Ämiri & Mikael Linden, 2016. "Income and total expenditure on health in OECD countries: Evidence from panel data and Hsiao's version of Granger non-causality tests," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 5(1), pages 1-9.
    9. Azar Dufrechou, Paola, 2016. "The efficiency of public education spending in Latin America: A comparison to high-income countries," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 188-203.
    10. Niklas Potrafke, 2006. "Parties Matter in Allocating Expenditures: Evidence from Germany," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 652, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    11. Akinwande Atanda & Andrea Kutinova Menclova & W. Robert Reed, 2018. "Is health care infected by Baumol's cost disease? Test of a new model," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(5), pages 832-849, May.
    12. Behrman, Jere R., 2010. "Investment in Education Inputs and Incentives," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4883-4975, Elsevier.
    13. Wu, Shih-Ying & Tang, Jenn-Hong & Lin, Eric S., 2010. "The impact of government expenditure on economic growth: How sensitive to the level of development?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 804-817, November.
    14. Morales Sarriera, Javier & Salvucci, Frederick P. & Zhao, Jinhua, 2018. "Worse than Baumol's disease: The implications of labor productivity, contracting out, and unionization on transit operation costs," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 10-16.
    15. Jochen Hartwig & Jan-Egbert Sturm, 2014. "Robust determinants of health care expenditure growth," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(36), pages 4455-4474, December.
    16. Emanuela di Gropello, 2006. "Meeting the Challenges of Secondary Education in Latin America and East Asia : Improving Efficiency and Resource Mobilization," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7173.
    17. Jere R. Behrman & John Hoddinott & John A. Maluccio, & Erica Soler-Hampejsek & Emily L. Behrman & Reynaldo Martorell & Manuel Ramirez-Zea & Aryeh D. Stein, 2006. "What Determines Adult Cognitive Skills? Impacts of Pre-Schooling, Schooling and Post-Schooling Experiences in Guatemala," PIER Working Paper Archive 06-027, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    18. 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.
    19. Felipa de Mello-Sampayo & Sofia de Sousa-Vale, 2014. "Financing Health Care Expenditure in the OECD Countries: Evidence from a Heterogeneous, Cross-Sectional Dependent Panel," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 61(2), pages 207-225, March.
    20. Xiaoying Liu & Jere R Behrman & Aryeh D Stein & Linda S Adair & Santosh K Bhargava & Judith B Borja & Mariangela Freitas da Silveira & Bernardo L Horta & Reynaldo Martorell & Shane A Norris & Linda M , 2017. "Prenatal care and child growth and schooling in four low- and medium-income countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(2), pages 1-21, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    WP; public education; Public education expenditure; Baumol’s effect; wage premium; institutions; teacher-pupil ratio; growth assumption; premium effect; Education spending; Wages; Capital spending; Sub-Saharan Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H52 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Education
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

    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:imf:imfwpa:2015/178. 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.