Performance Indicators for Public Spending Efficiency in Primary and Secondary Education

Abstract

This paper assesses the potential to raise public spending efficiency in the primary and secondary education sector. Resource availability per pupil has increased significantly over the past decade in a number of countries; often in attempting to exploit the link between educational attainment and growth. However, available evidence reveals only a weak correlation between increased resource availability and pupil performance. In order to draw cross-country comparisons of the efficiency in the provision of education, the paper develops a set of comparable indicators which reflect international differences in the levels of efficiency in the primary and secondary education sector both within and among countries. The paper identifies significant scope to improve efficiency by moving towards best practice. These results are robust to a variety of approaches and are most certain when the potential gain from eliminating inefficiency is larger.

Keywords: Education, public spending, efficiency, nonparametric methods, data envelopment analysis

JEL Classification: C14, C21, D24, H41, H52, I21, I22, I28