Total Government Expenditure Research Articles

Effective Capital Development and Productivity Growth in Nigeria (1985 – 2020)

The study examined human capital development and productivity growth in Nigeria from 1985 to 2020. Therefore, the broad objective of the study was to examine the impact of human capital development on productivity growth in Nigeria. The study made use of annual time series data from 1985 to 2020. The econometric methods of Granger causality test, autoregressive distributed lag bound (ARDL) co-integration test and the ARDL error correction mechanism were employed as the analytical technique. The granger causality test revealed the existence of a uni-directional causality between productivity growth and human capital development and not the reverse. The co-integration test revealed the existence of a long-run relationship between human capital development and productivity growth in Nigeria. The ARDL error correction mechanism revealed that life expectancy at birth, total government expenditure on education, total government expenditure on health, secondary school enrolment and tertiary school enrolment were significant. However, only primary school enrolment was the variable not significant. The study concluded that life expectancy at birth, total government expenditure on education, total government expenditure on health, secondary school enrolment and tertiary school enrolment have significant impact on productivity growth in Nigeria from 1985 to 2020. The study recommended for concerted and sincere efforts by government and policy markers in building and developing human capacity through adequate educational funding across all levels.

Diffusion forecast for grid-tied rooftop solar photovoltaic technology under store-on grid scheme model in Sub-Saharan Africa: Government role assessment

Government support is crucial for the competitiveness and success of renewable energy market policies. As an advancement to the previously developed store-on grid (SoG) scheme, this study considered 14 countries to examine the government's role in facilitating the battery energy storage systems (BESS) under the SoG scheme. A methodology for evaluating the total government expenditure on the BESS to achieve the solar photovoltaic cumulative capacity forecasted by the Bass model and possible total greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions avoided was presented. Using a 15 years' timeline and cumulative capacity target of 500 MW, the Bass model forecasting results revealed that over 480 MW cumulative capacity would be achieved under the SoG scheme. The average present value of the total government expenditure on the BESS across the selected countries was about $ 47,154,052. Eswatini at $ 61,304,636 and Zimbabwe at $ 30,924,616 recorded the highest and lowest total government expenditure on the BESS, respectively. This is attributed mainly to the country's forecasted diffusion capacity at the peak point and duration to the inflection points. Furthermore, Zimbabwe with 19.99 MtCO2eq and Uganda with 2.79 MtCO2eq recorded the highest and least total GHG emissions avoided, respectively, attributed mainly to the country's grid emission factor.

Simulating the macroeconomic impact of expansion in total government expenditure on the economy of Nigeria

AbstractThis study examines the impact of further expansion in government spending in Nigeria for the period of 1970–2016. Using a simulation analysis, the model divides the economy into five blocks which corresponds with five key sectors: government, price, supply, external, and monetary/financial sectors of the economy. The simulation scenario involves the average annual increase in total government expenditure, based on the projections of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) of the Federal Government of Nigeria. The results reveal positive and negative shocks across the sectors. Specifically, the results indicate that the policy fuels the growth of non‐oil output/export and real gross domestic product, suggesting the sensitivity of output to government expenditure. It further reveals a generally positive reaction from the monetary/financial sector variables, worsens inflationary pressure and exchange rate volatility crisis, while the manufacturing sector output also witnesses a significant fall. This study concludes that fiscal expansion in the form of public expenditure would yield a positive impact on the various sectors of the Nigerian economy, and that it would particularly serve as a veritable tool for achieving the diversification drive of the government. Overall, the study confirms the relative efficacy of fiscal policy in Nigeria. The study recommends sustained increase in government expenditure vis‐a‐vis fiscal discipline via the institutionalised regulatory framework. The economy should also be consciously diversified from oil to a non‐oil‐based economy.

Banking and Economic Growth: Comparison between Islamic and Conventional Banking in Malaysia

This study investigates the contribution of conventional banking and Islamic banking to economic growth in Malaysia. Return on assets, return on equity representing the profitability, total deposit, representing bank development, and several indicators such as total government expenditure, trade openness, and gross fixed capital formation were independent variables. In contrast, the dependent variable was GDP per capita. The study utilised secondary data collected from the Fitch Connect database and Datastream database. This study used a sample of 10 Islamic banking and 10 Conventional banking. The study found that the Islamic banking system variable can influence Malaysia's economic growth. ROA and Ltdep are found significant and have positive effect to economic growth, but ROE has adverse effects. On the other hand, the results show that ROA in Conventional bank does not have a relationship with economic growth. However, other banking indicators such as ROE and total deposit are significant to economic growth. Based on the ROE results, ROE Islamic bank contributes more to economic growth than Conventional bank because the percentage that contributes to the decreases of economic growth for Islamic banks is lesser than Conventional bank. The results also showed that Islamic banking provides an efficient channel for productive resources and monitors the use of the funds by the participation of business ventures, leading to bank profitability and then economic growth. This study also stressed on total deposit indicator as a proxy to bank development. This study found that total deposit for the both banking system is significant to economic growth. However, the contribution of banking development in conventional banking is much better than by Islamic banking. However, the gap of differences is too small, which shows that Islamic deposits can cope with conventional deposits.

Trends in medicare spending across strata of resource utilization among older individuals in the United States.

BackgroundHealth care spending is an increasing proportion of government expenditures in most Western countries. How this growth is distributed between individuals with minimal compared to high health care utilization is unknown.MethodsWe examined total and per-capita government expenditure in an observational cohort of fee-for-service U.S. Medicare enrollees aged ≥65 years from 2007 to 2018. We categorized patients into annual resource utilization strata. We examined annualized changes in adjusted spending across resource utilization strata and the distribution of spending within and across strata for a variety of health care settings.FindingsExamining 314,593,489 beneficiary-years of coverage, the top 1% of beneficiaries accounted for 14.9% of all expenditures, the top 5% for 41.5%, the top 10% for 60.0%, the top 20% for 79.1%, and the top 50% for 95.7%. Annual expenditures remained relatively stable from 2007 to 2018, with annual mean change of 0.7% (standard deviation 1.1%; median 1.1%) and mean per capita change of 0.4% (standard deviation 1·6%; median 0·3%). Changes were similar across strata with mean increases <1% in all, save for the <50th percentile strata (mean annual growth=1·9%), a significant difference (p = 0.0002). The overall distribution of expenditures across health care settings remained consistent over time, with different distributions between expenditure strata.InterpretationIn the U.S. from 2007 to 2018, Medicare spending has a Pareto distribution in which 80% of the costs are attributable to 20% of beneficiaries. Despite low overall Medicare spending growth from 2007 to 2018, growth has been greatest among those in the lowest spending group.FundingThe Commonwealth Fund (20,202,411).

Impact of Bank Deposit on Manufacturing Sector Output: The Case of Nigeria

Manufacturing sector plays an important role in the development of modern economy all over the world, whether advance or developing country. In the light of this, this study investigated the impact of bank credit on manufacturing outputfor the period 1981-2019. The variables were tested for stationarity. Error correction mechanism was adopted for the estimation of the model. Based on the result of the study, it was observed that credit to the manufacturing output has direct relationship with manufacturing output and it is statistically significant. Total government expenditure has direct relationship with manufacturing output, but not statistically significant. The relationship between exchange rate and corruption on output of manufacturing were Binverse and were not statistically significant. The most important variable affecting output of manufacturing sector is credit to the manufacturing. Manufacturing output in Nigeria does not significantly respond to changes in interest rate and government expenditure. The study concluded that credit to the manufacturing output is significant to the growth of manufacturing sector output in Nigeria economy. The paper recommended a better and stronger credit facility to manufacturing sector, should be promoted and sustained; there should be strong and comprehensive legal framework that will continue to aid in monitoring the performance of credit of the commercial banks. The most important variable affecting manufacturing output is credit to the manufacturing sector; effort should be made towards encouraging more credit to the manufacturing sector in Nigeria.

The effect of public expenditures on economic growth of Kosovo: An econometric analysis

Public spending as an important component of the composition of GDP has an impact on economic growth and development. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of disaggregated public expenditures, to measure the impact of current expenditures, transfers and subsidies, and capital expenditures as part of total government expenditures on economic growth and development of the Republic of Kosovo. To achieve the main goal of the paper was used the multiple linear regression model (OLS) and Pearson. The regression model has been modified and adapted to measure the regression of public spending on economic growth in Kosovo. The data used in the paper are secondary and collected from the Ministry of Finance of Kosovo, Agency of Statistics, and the Tax Administration of Kosovo. Data processing was done with SPSS. The results of the analysis show that the trend of Kosovo public spending for the analyzed period is increasing. According to Pearson correlation analysis, the results show that current public spending; transfers, and subsidies have a strong positive correlation to Gross Domestic Product. Whereas capital (investment) expenditures have a weaker positive correlation with GDP. The results of OLS regression, in our case, did not show the significance of independent variables, which means that the pubic expenses do not have an impact on economic growth in Kosovo.

Modelling the trends of the healthcare funding in the EU countries

Healthcare is one of the most important sectors of the public economy in the EU countries. An important task in the analysis and prediction of the values for healthcare funding is the development and application of quantitative models based on different mathematical methods. Three of the most popular indicators used for the macroeconomic description of the funding of healthcare are: (1) total government expenditure on health as a percentage of GDP; (2) total government expenditure on health as a percentage of total general government expenditure; and (3) total government expenditure on health per capita. The aim of this research is to study the trends for the main indicators of healthcare funding on the macroeconomic level and to develop models based on time series methods for analysis of the features of the trends and the prediction of the values for the next time period.

Asymmetric effects of oil revenue on government expenditure: insights from oil‐exporting developing countries

AbstractThis study was aimed at investigating the asymmetric effect of oil revenue on government expenditures in developing oil‐exporting countries, as most previous studies on the subject had presumed a symmetric oil revenue–government expenditure nexus. Thus, a non‐linear panel ARDL was employed to determine how government expenditures respond to positive and negative shocks to oil revenue. Regression estimates indicated that both total and health government expenditures respond asymmetrically to positive and negative changes in oil revenue in the long run, while the responses are symmetric in the short run. The results bespeak the limitation in modelling long‐run oil revenue–government expenditure nexus models symmetrically and the need to consider asymmetry when modelling the relationship between the two variables. The findings also bring to the fore the need for developing oil‐exporting countries to diversify their economies in order to extend their revenue sources, as such would greatly reduce the susceptibility of government expenditure, especially health expenditure to oil revenue busts. Furthermore, stabilisation funds from oil revenue booms if used and properly managed can help to moderate the negative impact of oil revenue busts in these countries.

How Do Pandemics Affect Government Expenditures?

Based on a sample of panel data for 14 countries spanning the period 2000-2018, this paper investigates the effect of pandemics on government expenditure and public health expenditure. The empirical results show that pandemics lead to an increase in government health expenditure, but the positive effect on total government expenditure may not be statistically significant.

Mortality versus Municipal and State Government Spending in American Cities.

The USA leads the world in healthcare spending but trails dozens of countries in life expectancy. Government spending may reduce overall mortality by redistributing resources from the rich to the poor. We linked mortality data from 2006 to 2015 to municipal and state government spending in 149 of the largest American cities. We modeled the association of mortality with city and state government spending per capita in 2005 using weighted linear regression. A 10% increase in state government expenditures was associated (P = 0.008) with a 1.4% (95%CI: 0.4-2.4%) reduction in mortality in American cities. Total city government expenditures were not associated with mortality (P > 0.10). However, among Whites, increases in city government spending were associated with a reduction in mortality of 4.8% (2.1-7.5%), but among Blacks and Asians, increased city government spending was associated with respective mortality increases of 1.7% (0.6-2.9%) and 5.1% (2.1-6.2%). State government spending is associated with reduced mortality in American cities. City government spending appears to benefit White longevity and hurt non-White longevity.

DGE Model for Assessing Macro-Fiscal Vulnerabilities in Algeria

In this paper, we present a Dynamic General Equilibrium (DGE) model to address the macro-fiscal vulnerabilities and the effects of fiscal policy on growth and employment in Algeria. We first discuss a baseline scenario throughout the projection period, 2021-2040 and then conduct several experiments; an increase in the efficiency of public spending on infrastructure investment, a gradual reduction in the share of non-interest government spending in GDP, the same gradual reduction in spending with a permanent increase in the share of investment in infrastructure in total noninterest government expenditure, and a composite fiscal reform program, respectively. The results show that with a well-designed fiscal program, there may be no trade-off between fiscal consolidation and economic growth.

Health service use and health system costs associated with diabetes during pregnancy in Australia

Background and aimsIn the context of the rising rate of diabetes in pregnancy in Australia, this study aims to examine the health service and resource use associated with diabetes during pregnancy. Methods and resultsThis project utilised a linked administrative dataset containing health and cost data for all mothers who gave birth in Queensland, Australia between 2012 and 2015 (n = 186,789, plus their babies, n = 189,909).The association between maternal characteristics and diabetes status were compared with chi-square analyses. Multiple logistic regression produced the odds ratio of having different outcomes for women who had diabetes compared to women who did not. A two-sample t-test compared the mean number of health services accessed. Generalised linear regression produced the mean costs associated with health service use.Mothers who had diabetes during pregnancy were more likely to have their labour induced at <38 weeks gestation (OR:1.39, 95% CI:1.29–1.50); have a cesarean section (OR: 1.26, 95% CI:1.22–1.31); have a preterm birth (OR:1.24, 95%: 1.18–1.32); have their baby admitted to a Special Care Nursery (OR: 2.34, 95% CI:2.26–2.43) and a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (OR:1.25, 95%CI: 1.14–1.37). On average, mothers with diabetes access health services on more occasions during pregnancy (54.4) compared to mothers without (50.5).Total government expenditure on mothers with diabetes over the first 1000 days of the perinatal journey was significantly higher than in mothers without diabetes ($12,757 and $11,332). ConclusionOverall, mothers that have diabetes in pregnancy require greater health care and resource use than mothers without diabetes in pregnancy.

The Service Sector-Led Growth Relationship: The Case of Nigeria

This paper examined the impact of the service sector on economic growth of Nigeria. The study covers the period 1981 to 2019 and data were obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria statistical bulletin. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root, Granger Causality test, Vector Autoregressive (VAR) approach, Bounds test for cointegration, and vector error correction mechanism were utilized in analysing the data. Findings of the study revealed that a bidirectional causality exist between service sector and economic growth of Nigeria. Meanwhile, the VAR result presented an evidence of weak exogeneity of the service sector in predicting economic growth. However, both broad money supply and total government expenditure exerted a significant impact on economic growth. From the impulse response function, it was discovered that economic growth responded negatively to shocks in service sector output both in the short run and in the long run; while the variance decomposition indicated that gross domestic product (a proxy for economic growth) is strongly endogenous in predicting itself in the short run while such diminishes in the long run. The Bounds test for cointegration revealed evidence of long run equilibrium relationship and the error correction mechanism revealed that 88.30% of the short run disequilibrium in the gross domestic product are corrected annually. Meanwhile, it was discovered that professional, scientific and technical services is the major contributor to economic growth as captured by its short run and long run elasticity coefficients of 0.5936 and 0.9455 respectively. The paper recommended the need for stimulating industrialization as this is the major pathway through which the service sector can positively impact economic growth.

Country size\xa0bias in global health: cross-country comparison of\xa0malaria policy and foreign aid

BackgroundForeign aid has been shown to be favourably biased towards small countries. This study investigated whether country size bias also occurs in national malaria policy and development assistance from international agencies.MethodsData from publicly available sources were collected with countries as observational units. The exploratory data analysis was based on the conceptual framework with socio-economic, environmental and institutional parameters. The strength of relationships was estimated by the Pearson and polychoric correlation coefficients. The correlation matrix was explored by factor analysis.ResultsMalaria burden is strongly correlated with GDP per capita, total health expenditure per capita, HDI; moderately with latitude, weakly with elevation, urban population share, per capita funding from the Global Fund, PMI USAID, UK government and UNICEF. Small country status is strongly correlated with population size, land area, island status; moderately with development assistance received per capita, weakly with funding per capita from Global Fund, government NMP and PMI USAID. Policy score 1, a variable derived from our factor analysis and related to malaria endemicity, is significantly strongly correlated with the malaria burden, moderately with HDI, GDP per capita, total health expenditure per capita, PMI USAID funding; weakly with island status, urban population share, latitude, coastal population share, total government expenditure and trade openness, Global Fund funding, World Bank funding, UK government funding, and UNICEF funding per capita. Policy score 2, which captures variation not related to malaria endemicity, is significantly weakly related to the ICRG index, PMI USAID funding per capita and small country status.ConclusionsThe results suggest that malaria burden and economic development are bidirectionally related. Economic development can contribute to a reduction in the malaria burden. Country size does not negatively impact malaria burden, but it does account for greater development assistance per capita from selected international agencies. National malaria policy is associated with parameters related to public governance and is modified in small countries. Small country bias is present in the distribution of socio-economic resources and the allocation of foreign aid. Small countries are characterized by distinct environmental and socio-political properties.

TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN MALAYSIA

Background and Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the level of technical efficiency of Malaysia’s secondary education. Education efficiency has become an important issue since the education sector is the recipient of high priority budget allocation. An evaluation of whether the budget distribution for secondary education is technically efficient is necessary because secondary education represents almost 40% of the national education budget. &#x0D; &#x0D; Methodology: The study applied the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in examining the level of technical efficiency for a sample of 626 secondary schools from four selected states, namely, Selangor, Melaka, Kedah, and Terengganu. The sample was further split into schools from developed and less developed states, and urban and rural areas. &#x0D; &#x0D; Findings: The results revealed that secondary schools in the four sample states were technically inefficient (almost 98%). Most schools were at a moderate level of technical efficiency (score range between 0.5-0.79). Interestingly, schools in rural areas and less-developed states showed better technical efficiency than those in urban areas and developed states. Given the government's total expenditure, academic achievement could be increased by almost 30 percent with an improvement in inefficiency.&#x0D; &#x0D; Contributions: The study's fundamental implications are that inefficient secondary schools need to increase their efficiency by ensuring effective budget spending and adequate expenditure distribution monitoring. More schools need to be constructed or repaired, and old schools/buildings upgraded. The sector also needs to expedite compliance with the 17:1 student-teacher ratio set by the Education Ministry to improve teaching delivery quality.&#x0D; &#x0D; Keywords: Data envelopment analysis, government spending, secondary school, student and teacher ratio, technical efficiency.&#x0D; &#x0D; Cite as: Baba, R., Abdul Karim, Z., Abdul-Majid, M., &amp; Sulaiman, N. (2021). Technical efficiency of secondary schools in Malaysia. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 6(1), 265-283. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol6iss1pp265-283

Oil bonanza and the composition of government expenditure

Government behavior can be affected by natural resource benefits. Benevolent government and political leaders may use them to improve the welfare of the people, whereas others may use them for their own interests. To examine the effects of oil bonanza on government behavior comprehensively, this study investigates how giant oilfield discoveries affect the size and composition of government expenditure using data from 168 countries between 1972 and 2008. We find weak evidence that giant oilfield discoveries increase total government expenditure significantly in the medium and long term, whereas their effects are more evident in the short term, especially when controlling for other factors affecting total government expenditure. We also obtain evidence that democracy plays a mediating role in these effects; if the democracy level in a country is consolidated, the size of total government spending does not increase even when discovering giant oilfields. Considering each category of government expenditure, giant oilfield discoveries increase expenditure on health and social protection significantly, whereas they decrease educational expenditure. Furthermore, giant oilfield discoveries decrease expenditure on economic affairs and defense and increase general public services and public order and safety. Finally, giant oilfield discoveries increase the net implicit gasoline subsidy in the long term. These findings enhance our understanding of the effects of oil bonanza on government behavior.

Exorcising the “Ghosts” from the Government Payroll in Developing Countries in the Wake of the Covid-19 Pandemic: Ghana’s Empirical Example

The salary payment of government workers constitute a significant percentage of total government expenditure in developing economies, simply because the government remains the largest or biggest employer. The Government Payroll system, therefore, requires a robust control mechanism to detect and prevent the occurrence of “payroll fraud”, as the irregularity denies the state of huge sums of monies going down the drain and into private pockets, and which could have otherwise been channelled into some critical sectors of the economy; and to minimise the excessive borrowing by government to fill the gap. The several efforts and reforms by the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) and the Ghana Audit Service (GAS) in particular; and the Ministry of Finance (MoF) in general, to clean the Government Payroll of these “payroll frauds” consistently over the years have not yielded the desired results. The various studies conducted on “payroll fraud” in Ghana did not address themselves to the introduction of the “Electronic-Salary Payment Voucher (E-SPV) system since 2014, which was hailed by many as the final panacea to the “annual ritual of ghost workers on the government payroll”. To fill the gap, we conducted this empirical cross-sectional research on “payroll fraud” based on the “fraud triangle theory” and the “graft estimation model”. We employed non probability purposive, but convenient, sampling methodology by means of structured questionnaires and face-to-face interviews to arrive at our conclusion. Our major finding was that “payroll fraud” can never be eliminated (but only minimised), and must therefore be treated and necessarily managed to the barest minimum (between 1% and 5%), just as normal “bad debts” in Financial Statements. Policy makers will have to revisit the issues about “Ghost Workers”, in the midst of the novel and dreaded, and disastrous Convid-19 pandemic.

National vaccine coverage trends and funding in Latin America and the Caribbean

BackgroundFrom 2006 to 2011 nearly 174,000 deaths were prevented in Latin America and the Caribbean through vaccination of children under five, which is widely attributed to the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI). Despite near global adoption of EPI recommendations, vaccination coverage shows substantial variation across world regions. Causes for low immunizations within regions are multifaceted and include vaccination program costs. To date, publications regarding vaccine coverage across Latin America and the Caribbean are not readily available. This study aimed to: (1) compare vaccine coverage trends across nations within the region; and (2) assess whether national immunization program expenditures are correlated with vaccine coverage. MethodsCoverage for nine vaccines were collected by nation using publicly available data from WHO. National immunization program expenditures for each country were collected from the World Bank Index. The proportion of countries achieving 90% coverage in the years 2013 and 2017 for each vaccine were compared. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to measure the relationship between financing variables and DTP3 coverage for 2017. ResultsIn 2017, fewer Latin American and Caribbean nations were able to achieve 90% vaccine coverage for five vaccines compared to 2013. Mostly weak to moderate positive relationships were found between national immunization program expenditures and DTP3 coverage for 2017. Excluding Haiti, a weak negative relationship was found between total government expenditure on vaccines per infant and DTP3 coverage for 2017. Countries across Latin America and the Caribbean were largely self-reliant in funding vaccine expenditures. ConclusionsFewer countries across Latin America and the Caribbean are currently achieving optimum national vaccine coverage and weak to moderate relationships between routine immunization and vaccine expenditures and coverage were observed. Additional factors contributing to national vaccine coverage should be concomitantly examined to implement strategies which optimize delivery of childhood immunizations.

Technical Efficiency of Maternal Health Services Provision in Public Hospitals of Northwest Ethiopia: A Two-Stage Data Envelopment Analysis.

IntroductionEthiopian health expenditure as a share of total government expenditure increased from 7.6% in 2013/14 to 8.1% in 2016/17. But it remained low even for the low-income country average expected share of 8.7%. It signifies the efficient use of scarce resources in the health sector is still critical to achieving sustainable development goals. But little evidence is available about public hospitals’ technical efficiency in providing maternal health services. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the technical efficiency of maternal health services provision of public hospitals in Northwest Ethiopia.MethodsFacility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among twelve randomly selected public hospitals. Input data (salary expenditure, non-salary expenditure, and the number of beds) and maternal health services output data (antenatal care, skilled delivery, and postnatal care) for a 2011 Ethiopian fiscal year (July 2018 to June 2019) were collected and entered into Epi-Data 3.1. We used both primary and secondary data collection procedures to determine independent variables and the dependent variable, respectively. We also used a two-stage input-oriented data envelopment analysis with variable returns to scale assumption.ResultsThe study showed that hospitals included in this study wasted US$ 6833.50 for salary and US$ 3886.8 for non-salary expenditures. The study also revealed that the mean pure technical efficiency of public hospitals for maternal health service provision was 0.92±0.142, and their scale efficiency was 0.795±0.24. The hospital manager’s experience year, the educational level of the manager, and the hospital service year associated positively with the technical efficiency. However, the catchment population and distance of another health facility associated negatively with technical efficiency.ConclusionThe public hospitals’ pure technical efficiency in the provision of maternal health services in Northwest Ethiopia was high. More than half of the public hospitals were technically efficient. The wasted amount of expenditures could be used for satisfying the unmet health services need of the population. Therefore, it is better to monitor the health facilities for the wise use of the existing resources for their best performance.