ANALYSIS OF THE (IN)EFFICIENCY OF PUBLIC SPENDING ON EDUCATION IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION AND ITS SPECIAL DISTRIBUTION IN THE MUNICIPALITIES OF THE STATE OF MINAS GERAIS

Abstract

The present study has as general objective to analyze the efficiency in the allocation of public spending on education in Elementary School and its spatial distribution in the municipalities of the state of Minas Gerais. To meet the proposed objective, the non-parametric technique Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used to estimate the efficiency/inefficiency scores. Subsequently, the scores obtained were submitted to spatial analysis to verify their spatial distribution in the municipalities of Minas Gerais. Two models were estimated: Model 1 referring to the initial years of Elementary School and Model 2 referring to the final years of Elementary School. Among the two models, Model 1 concentrates the largest number of efficient municipalities; although they presented the lowest amounts of educational public spending per elementary school student. These municipalities should serve as a reference for inefficient units in terms of public resource management practices for education, educational performance and provision of services in that area. In addition, it was also possible to identify that in models 1 and 2 there are 23 benchmark units that are distributed in the state of Minas Gerais, and are located mainly in the Jequinhonha, Norte de Minas and Vale do Mucuri mesoregions, north of the capital. Belo Horizonte, regions that have low rates of economic and social development.