Public Spending and Investment in Children: Measuring and Assessing Social and Economic Justice

Abstract

AbstractA major determinant of poverty and inequality among children is the provision of public services, like health and education, which are crucial to their quality of life. Quantitative assessment of the distribution of public spending on these services and their impact on child poverty is a cornerstone for any analysis of social and economic justice among children. Government spending on social sectors is a strong measurement of the financial commitment governments make to protect and invest in their own people, in particular children. Thus, in this article we address three issues: (i) measurement of public spending in education, health, and direct transfers (cash transfers and near-cash); (ii) the methodological issues involved in this measurement (both in terms of public spending and in child poverty); and (iii) an assessment of the impact on children in poverty and equity. Thus, the chapter deals with how to measure pro-poor public spending. Such analyses measure the benefits an individual or household receive from different public services by linking administrative budget data with nationally representative household surveys. Information on social expenditures (from public budgets) and about poverty and services utilization (from household surveys) exists for over 100 countries. However, comparable data covering at least two of the three sectors (education, health, and social transfers) exist for only 11 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. An assessment is made in terms of both equity and impact on child poverty. Finally, the relationships between the level and distribution of these expenditures with distributive justice (of public social spending) and children’s quality of life is explored.KeywordInequityInequalitySocial justiceChildrenChild povertyBenefit incidence analysisPro-poor public social spending