EFFICIENCY OF PUBLIC SPENDING AND EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE MUNICIPALITIES OF MINAS GERAIS

Abstract

The Education dimension of the Municipal Human Development Index (MHDI) is composed of indicators of schooling of the adult population and the educational flow of the young population. Analyzing the MHDI Education of the municipalities of Minas Gerais, it is noticed that, in addition to the great disparity, there is a serious problem regarding the schooling of the adult population. In this sense, the objective of this study was to evaluate the efficiency measures of education expenditures in the municipalities of Minas Gerais. In order to calculate the efficiencies, the non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique was used in a database containing educational information from all municipalities in the state in 2010. The results indicate that there is an inverse relation between per capita expenditure with education and the efficiency of this expenditure. This means that municipalities that spend more, in per capita terms, are not the most efficient. In other words, many municipalities are spending proportionately more than others to achieve the same low levels of schooling and school flow.