Public expenditure on disability (PED) in Europe: An efficiency analysis

Abstract

AbstractDisability concerns all citizens and its public policies are essential for social improvement. Moreover, the increase in life expectancy will lead to most of the population being part of this group. In Europe, public policies have evolved towards the development of the welfare state, although there are significant differences between countries. Thus, this paper analyses the efficiency of public expenditure on disability among EU countries through a DEA analysis and the relation with social welfare models, as well as target values and improvement proposals, by studying the resulting differences as a consequence of their different social policies. The results confirm a limited relation between social welfare models and public administration styles with the efficiency on public expenditure on disability and that the countries should work in two directions: increasing public expenditure on disability (which would reduce the gap between target and actual disability prevalence values), and efficiently managing public expenditure.