The efficiency of expenditures for general education: empirical evidence from Vietnam's transitional economy

Abstract

This paper analyses the efficiency of expenditures for general education across Vietnam's provinces and estimates the impacts of provincial institutions on the efficiency of such expenditures. Using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach, the paper finds that, as a whole, the general-education system is not performing efficiently, but that upper-level education in the system is more efficient than lower-level education; that the state budget allocated for primary education is managed efficiently, whereas the budget allocated for secondary education is not; and that household expenditures on education are inefficiently used. Empirical evidence from Tobit models for panel data with bootstrap procedures suggests that more prosperous provinces are negatively associated with lower efficiency in education expenditures, while more transparent and densely populated provinces are strongly associated with higher efficiency in education expenditures. These empirical results shed light on issues of educational management and have policy implications for a more efficient allocation of public resources to the education sector.