tailieunhanh - Education and Health in G7 Countries: Achieving Better Outcomes with Less Spending

Selected policies, institutions, and environmental factors, on the other hand, have a clear impact on education attainment. In particular, family background and teacher quality have been identified as important explanatory variables for student achievement. School autonomy and emphasis on assessing student performance are likely to raise education attainment, while teacher unions’ influence may have a negative impact. The effect of other factors on education attainment is ambiguous; these include the impact of class size, decentralization, and the relative importance of public and private education | Education and Health in G7 Countries Achieving Better Outcomes with Less Spending Marijn Verhoeven Victoria Gunnarsson and Stéphane Carcillo INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND 2007 International Monetary Fund WP 07 263 IMF Working Paper Fiscal Affairs Department Education and Health in G7 Countries Achieving Better Outcomes with Less Spending Prepared by Marijn Verhoeven Victoria Gunnarsson and Stéphane Carcillo Authorized for distribution by Gerd Schwartz November 2007 Abstract This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF. The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author s and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author s and are published to elicit comments and to further debate. Enhancing the efficiency of education and health spending is a key policy challenge in G7 countries. The paper assesses this efficiency and seeks to establish a link between differences in efficiency across countries and policy and institutional factors. The findings suggest that reforms aimed at increasing efficiency need to take into account the nature and causes of inefficiencies. Inefficiencies in G7 countries mostly reflect lack of cost effectiveness in acquiring real resources such as teachers and pharmaceuticals. We also find that high wage spending is associated with lower efficiency. In addition lowering student-teacher ratios is associated with reduced efficiency in the education sector while immunizations and doctors consultations coincide with higher efficiency in the health sector. Greater autonomy for schools seems to raise efficiency in secondary education. JEL Classification Numbers H11 H51 H52 I12 I28 Keywords Expenditure efficiency health sector reform education sector reform G7 Authors E-Mail Addresses mverhoeven@ vgunnarsson@ .