Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Castro-Leal, F.
Right arrow Articles by Mehra, K.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Related Collections
Right arrow O15 - Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
Right arrow H52 - Government Expenditures and Education
Right arrow H51 - Government Expenditures and Health
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© 1999 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank

research-article

Public Social Spending in Africa: Do the Poor Benefit?

Florencia Castro-Leal, Julia Dayton, Lionel Demery and Kalpana Mehra

Florencia Castro-Leal is an economist and Kalpana Mehra is a research analyst in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network at the World Bank, Julia Dayton is a Ph.D. candidate in health economics at Yale University, and Lionel Demery is lead poverty specialist in the Poverty Reduction and Social Development Group in the Africa Regional Office of the World Bank.

Education and health care are basic services essential in any effort to combat poverty and are often subsidized with public funds to help achieve that purpose. This paper examines the effectiveness of public social spending on education and health care in several African countries and finds that these programs favor not the poor, but those who are better-off. It concludes that this targeting problem cannot be solved simply by adjusting the subsidy program. The constraints that prevent the poor from taking advantage of these services must also be addressed if the public subsidies are to be effective.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Journal of Conflict ResolutionHome page
B. Burgoon
On Welfare and Terror: Social Welfare Policies and Political-Economic Roots of Terrorism
Journal of Conflict Resolution, April 1, 2006; 50(2): 176 - 203.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Am J Trop Med HygHome page
L. M. BARAT, N. PALMER, S. BASU, E. WORRALL, K. HANSON, and A. MILLS
DO MALARIA CONTROL INTERVENTIONS REACH THE POOR? A VIEW THROUGH THE EQUITY LENS
Am J Trop Med Hyg, August 1, 2004; 71(2_suppl): 174 - 178.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 AJPHHome page
A. Wagstaff, F. Bustreo, J. Bryce, M. Claeson, and the Who-World Bank Child Health and Poverty Workin
Child Health: Reaching the Poor
Am J Public Health, May 1, 2004; 94(5): 726 - 736.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Med. EthicsHome page
A. Wagstaff
Economics, health and development: some ethical dilemmas facing the World Bank and the international community
J. Med. Ethics, August 1, 2001; 27(4): 262 - 267.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.