Efficiency of public spending on human capital in Africa

Figures & data

Table 1. Input and output variables

Variable	Description	Source
Inputs PSH	Government spending on health	WDI
PSE	Government spending on education	WDI
Outputs LifeExp	Life expectancy at birth, total (years)	WDI
IMR	Mortality rate, infant (per 1,000 live births)	WDI
MMR	Maternal mortality ratio (modeled estimate, per 100,000 live births)	WDI
GPSER	School enrollment, primary (percent gross)	WDI
GSSER	School enrollment, secondary (percent gross)	WDI

Source: Authors Construct (2022).

Table 2. Summary of variable definition, expected sign and data source

Variable	Definition	Expected Sign	Source
Inst_Qty Inst_QtySQ	Institutional Quality Squared term of Institutional Quality	+ +	Estimated Estimated
Urbanization	Urban population (percent of the total population)	±	WDI
Growth GrowthSQ	GDP per capita growth (annual percent) Squared term of growth variable	+ +	WDI Estimated
GovtExp	General government final consumption expenditure (percent of GDP)	-	WDI
Inflation	Inflation, consumer prices (annual percent)	-	WDI
FDI	Foreign direct investment, net inflows (percent of GDP)	+	WDI
Openness	Addition of export and import of goods and services (percent of GDP)	+	Estimated

Source: Author’s Compilation (2022).

Table 3. Technical efficiency scores on human capital development

Country	Health	Rank	Education	Rank
Tunisia	0.972	1st	0.465	8th
Mauritania	0.956	2nd	0.625	6th
Mauritius	0.919	3rd	0.733	3rd
Guinea	0.832	4th	0.771	2nd
Senegal	0.816	5th	0.352	15th
Cape Verde	0.8	6th	0.464	9th
Ghana	0.76	7th	0.366	11th
Mali	0.754	8th	0.466	7th
Ethiopia	0.741	9th	0.353	14th
Cameroon	0.672	10th	0.671	4th
Madagascar	0.628	11th	0.819	1st
Burkina Faso	0.517	12th	0.356	13th
Sao Tome and Principe	0.495	13th	0.359	12th
Niger	0.438	14th	0.372	10th
Rwanda	0.421	15th	0.644	5th
Burundi	0.348	16th	0.349	16th
AVG	0.692		0.510

Source: Author’s Construct (2022).

Figure 1. Efficiency of public spending on health.

Source: Author’s Construct (2022).

Figure 2. Efficiency of public spending on education.

Source: Author’s Construct (2022).

Table 4. Regression results on efficiency of public spending on health and education

	(1) Tobit	(2) Tobit	(3) Simarwilson	(4) Simarwilson
Variable	Health	Education	Health	Education
Urban	0.342***	−0.125	0.351***	−0.081
	(0.087)	(0.135)	(0.118)	(0.122)
Growth	−1.267**	−1.371	−1.565**	−0.153
	(0.586)	(0.913)	(0.789)	(0.921)
GrowthSQ	9.454**	3.053	12.479*	−2.635
	(4.363)	(6.797)	(6.999)	(6.597)
Govt_Exp	−2.058***	−1.446***	−2.012***	−1.243***
	(0.260)	(0.406)	(0.356)	(0.380)
Inflation	−0.045	0.048	−0.027	−0.191
	(0.161)	(0.250)	(0.200)	(0.229)
FDI	−0.665**	0.002	−0.909**	−0.077
	(0.270)	(0.421)	(0.370)	(0.388)
Openness	0.567***	0.261**	0.596***	0.252**
	(0.070)	(0.110)	(0.103)	(0.099)
Inst_Qty	−0.067	−1.365***	−0.098	−1.471***
	(0.239)	(0.372)	(0.313)	(0.359)
Inst_QtySQ	−0.172	1.347***	−0.064	1.467***
	(0.291)	(0.454)	(0.398)	(0.433)
_cons	0.614***	0.939***	0.598***	0.874***
	(0.072)	(0.112)	(0.099)	(0.110)
sigma_u:_cons	0.000	0.000
	(0.015)	(0.027)
sigma_e:_cons	0.111***	0.173***
	(0.006)	(0.009)
sigma:_cons			0.119***	0.152***
			(0.008)	(0.009)
Obs.	175	175	158	166
Pseudo R^2	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000

Standard errors are in parenthesis.

*** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1.

Source: Author’s Construct (2022).

Figure 3. Margins plot showing the relationship between economic growth and efficiency of public spending.

Source: Author’s Construct (2022).

Figure 4. Margins plot showing the relationship between institutional quality and efficiency of public spending.

Source: Author’s Construct (2022).