Waste Not, Want Not: The Efficiency of Health Expenditure in Emerging and Developing Economies

August 28, 2013

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Francesco Grigoli, and Javier Kapsoli. Waste Not, Want Not: The Efficiency of Health Expenditure in Emerging and Developing Economies, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2013) accessed September 20, 2024

Disclaimer: 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

Summary

Public health spending is low in emerging and developing economies relative to advanced economies and health outputs and outcomes need to be substantially improved. Simply increasing public expenditure in the health sector, however, may not significantly affect health outcomes if the efficiency of this spending is low. This paper quantifies the inefficiency of public health expenditure and the associated potential gains for emerging and developing economies using a stochastic frontier model that controls for the socioeconomic determinants of health, and provides country-specific estimates. The results suggest that African economies have the lowest efficiency. At current spending levels, they could boost life expectancy up to about five years if they followed best practices.

Subject: Expenditure, Expenditure efficiency, Foreign exchange, Health, Health care spending, Purchasing power parity

Keywords: Correlation coefficient, Developing economies, Efficiency, Efficiency analysis, Emerging economies, Expenditure efficiency, Health care spending, Health expenditure, Health outcome, Health output, Public health, Public spending, Purchasing power parity, Western Hemisphere, Western Hemisphere economy, WP

Publication Details

Pages:

26
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2013/187
Stock No:

WPIEA2013187
ISBN:

9781484364260
ISSN:

1018-5941

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