Expenditure incidence in Africa: Microeconomic evidence

Type Journal Article - Fiscal Studies
Title Expenditure incidence in Africa: Microeconomic evidence
Author(s)
Volume 21
Issue 3
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2000
Page numbers 329-347
URL https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David_Sahn/publication/5111292_Expenditure_Incidence_in_Africa_​Microeconomic_Evidence/links/0912f50ef93cd17917000000.pdf
Abstract
In this paper, we examine the progressivity of social sector expenditures in eight sub-Saharan African countries. We employ dominance tests, complemented by extended Gini/concentration coefficients, to determine whether health and education expenditures redistribute resources to the poor. We find that social services are poorly targeted. Among the services examined, primary education tends to be most progressive and university education is least progressive. The benefits associated with hospital care are also less progressive than other health facilities. Our results also show that, while concentration curves are a useful way to summarise information on the distributional benefits of government expenditures, statistical testing of differences in curves is important.

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