2001年-世界发展银行全球_Poverty_Education_and_Health_in_Indonesia___Who_Benefits_from_Public_Spending__68页_3mb

Summary of "Poverty, Education, and Health in Indonesia: Who Benefits from Public Spending?"

Core Content

This working paper by Peter Lanjouw, Menno Pradhan, Fadia Saadah, Haneen Sayed, and Robert Sparrow analyzes the distributional impact of public spending on education and health in Indonesia, focusing on how the poor benefit from these services. The study is based on data from multiple rounds of SUSENAS household surveys and uses both static and dynamic benefit incidence analysis to assess the impact of public and private spending on different income groups.

Main Findings

• Poverty Trends: Indonesia experienced a significant decline in poverty prior to the 1997/98 financial crisis. However, the crisis reversed this trend, leading to an increase in poverty rates. Official statistics show a drop from 40.1% in 1976 to 11.3% in 1996, but this increased by about 8 percentage points between 1996 and 1999.

• Poverty Measurement: The study uses two alternative poverty lines: the official poverty lines (based on a daily nutritional requirement of 2100 calories plus non-food expenses) and the "alternative" poverty lines (based on the cost of basic needs method). The latter yields lower poverty rates and better aligns with non-monetary indicators of well-being.

• Regional Variations: Regional poverty profiles show significant disparities. Rural areas are consistently poorer than urban areas, and the "alternative" poverty lines better reflect this difference. For instance, rural Irian Jaya and East Timor are among the poorest regions.

• Welfare Indicators: The study uses several non-monetary indicators to assess well-being, including adult illiteracy, child school completion, infant mortality, and child malnutrition. These indicators highlight the deepening poverty in rural areas and the need for a more nuanced approach to measuring poverty.

• Benefit Incidence Analysis:

  • Education: Public spending on primary education is pro-poor, while higher education and secondary schooling show more progressive benefits when considering changes over time. The poor are well represented in primary schooling, and increased public provision of secondary schooling could benefit them more.
  • Health: Public spending on primary health care is pro-poor, and the greatest benefit to the poor would come from an increase in this area. Spending on hospitals is less beneficial to the poor.

• Dynamic Analysis: The authors compare the incidence of public spending in the 1990s with that in the 1970s and 1980s, finding that the marginal incidence of education spending is more progressive than static analysis suggests. This is attributed to "early capture" by the non-poor.

• Economies of Scale: The traditional static analysis assumes no economies of scale in consumption, which may lead to misleading conclusions. The study subjects its results to robustness tests using alternative assumptions about economies of scale.

• Private Spending: Private outlays on education and health are examined, showing that the poor incur expenses regardless of whether they use public or private services. The distribution of private spending across income quintiles is compared with the value of transfers received.

Key Information

• Methodology: The study uses SUSENAS household surveys from 1995 to 1998, focusing on Core and Module questionnaires.
• Data Sources: Includes per capita consumption data, education and health expenditures, and inpatient treatment data.
• Policy Implications: The paper recommends increasing public spending on primary health care and secondary education to better benefit the poor.
• Contact Information: The paper is part of the World Bank's Policy Research Working Paper Series and can be accessed at http://econ.worldbank.org. Authors can be contacted via the provided email addresses.

Structure of the Paper

1. Introduction: Introduces the context of Indonesia's development and the focus on education and health.
2. Poverty, Education and Health Outcomes in Indonesia: Reviews long-term and recent changes in poverty, health, and education.
3. Regional Poverty: Analyzes poverty across provinces using different measures and regional price indices.
4. Benefit Incidence Analysis: Examines how public spending on education and health affects different income groups.
5. Dynamic Incidence: Compares the incidence of public spending over time and assesses the impact of changes in public spending.
6. Robustness Tests: Tests the sensitivity of results to assumptions about economies of scale.
7. Policy Recommendations: Summarizes findings and suggests policy actions to improve the distributional impact of public spending.

Conclusion

The paper underscores the importance of public spending on primary health care and secondary education in improving the well-being of the poor in Indonesia. It calls for a more nuanced approach to analyzing the distributional effects of public spending, particularly in light of economies of scale and dynamic changes in the economic environment.