Open AccessThe Incidence of Government Expenditures on Education and Health: Microeconomic Evidence from Pakistan
Author(s) -
Ahmed Nawaz Hakro,
Muhammad Nadeem Akram
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
the lahore journal of economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1811-5446
pISSN - 1811-5438
DOI - 10.35536/lje.2007.v12.i2.a2
Subject(s) - equity (law) , economics , inequality , government (linguistics) , government expenditure , gini coefficient , public economics , economic growth , public expenditure , incidence (geometry) , demographic economics , development economics , economic inequality , public finance , political science , macroeconomics , mathematical analysis , linguistics , philosophy , physics , mathematics , optics , law
This paper has analyzed the incidence of government expenditures on health and education by using the benefit incidence approach. Recent household level data from the Pakistan Standards of Living Measures (PSLM) has been used to calculate the incidence for Pakistan overall, and at provincial and regional levels, of different education and health services. GINI and concentration coefficients have been used to measure the benefit inequalities of public expenditure. The results demonstrate that education expenditures are progressive in overall Pakistan. The progressiveness hypothesis regarding health expenditure is accepted partially, as the expenditure is progressive for Pakistan overall, but regressive at regional and provincial level of services. Efforts should be directed towards the horizontal and vertical equity in the allocation of resources both at the provincial and regional levels, and greater targeting of rural and low-income groups can make the expenditure programs more effective and result oriented.