Revista Ambiente Contábil (Jan 2021)

An analysis of the efficiency of public expenditure on education in the Municipalities of the State of Amazonas from 2013 to 2017

  • Mayara Guimarães de Sousa,
  • Carla Macedo Velloso dos Santos,
  • Adenes Teixeira Alves,
  • Manoel Martins do Carmo Filho

DOI
https://doi.org/10.21680/2176-9036.2021v13n1ID23629
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 1

Abstract

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Purpose: This article aimed to evaluate the efficiency of public expenditure in the municipalities of the State of Amazonas with primary education in the years 2013 to 2017 by building a ranking of the efficiency of the municipalities relating the results obtained in IDEB by each city in the period, under the counterpart of the values of expenses paid for primary education, the average number of students enrolled in the period, average expenditure per student and GDP per capita of each municipality. Methodology: We used Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique to evaluate the 37 Amazonian municipalities' efficiency in the sample. The variables analyzed include municipal data on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), number of inhabitants, number of students enrolled, spending on education, and IDEB notes for the period. Results: The results showed that only eight municipalities (21.6%) were classified as efficient and that these municipalities were those with the worst starting conditions, in terms of average wealth and educational performance, and that made the lowest expenses per enrolled student, which reaffirms the finding of diminishing returns to scale in education. On the other hand, the least efficient municipalities were those with the best starting condition in terms of GDP per capita and which presented high expenditures per student, but which reached the worst performances in the 2017 IDEB. Contributions of the Study: Considering the amounts spent by Amazonian municipalities on primary education, taking into account the size and performance in the IDEB of each city in the period under analysis, the research seeks to demonstrate the efficiency in the application of spending on primary education, providing useful and information for a more qualified and efficient allocation of public resources in education, providing improvements in the social aspects of the population aspects.

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