Quality of public spending allocated to basic education in the municipalities of the Médio Alto Uruguai Corede (2008-2021)

Abstract

In a context of restriction of public resources, the form of application and the results generated are fundamental to the quality of spending. In basic education, however, public resources have not necessarily been reflected in the improvement of the quality of the service provided. This hypothesis supported the objective of analyzing the level of efficiency of public spending directed to basic education in the municipalities of COREDE Médio Alto Uruguai, between 2008 and 2021, using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). In terms of results, considering the seven bienniums analyzed, for the initial and final grades, the average of efficient municipalities was 59.18% and 57.82%, respectively. In both analyses, it was verified the presence of practically the same municipalities at the ends of the classification, defined as more and less efficient. Furthermore, the best results were not related to the greater use of public resources, since the municipalities with higher expenditures do not appear in the first positions of efficiency.