Incidences of Public Education Spending in Developing Countries

Overview & Synopsis

This paper quantitatively analyzes the incidence of public education spending on the poor in developing countries by using the results of standard benefit-incidence studies and additional national data. Although there is considerable variation across studies, it is found that public education spending generally does not favor the poor, but it does favor them at a lower level of education. The poorest quintile (20% of the population), on average, receives 16.3% of total public education spending while the richest quintile receives 25.9%. In primary education, the poorest quintile receives 22.4% of public spending but only 5.5% in higher education. The cross-country analysis of variations in the incidence of public education spending implies that increased spending on education will be associated with increased share for the poor given that it is not devoted to spending on higher education. (Contains 3 tables and 15 notes.)