How Expansion of Public Services Affects the Poor: Benefit Incidence Analysis for the Lao People's Democratic Republic

32 Pages Posted: 21 Jun 2013

See all articles by Peter G. Warr

Peter G. Warr

Australian National University (ANU) - Crawford School of Public Policy

Jayant Menon

Asian Development Bank; Asian Development Bank Institute

Sitthiroth Rasphone

Australian National University (ANU)

Date Written: May 1, 2013

Abstract

Studies of the incidence of benefits from public services have rightly stressed the difference between average and marginal benefits. Cross sectional methods of analysis for Lao PDR indicate that for public education and health services, total benefits are highest for the best-off quintile groups. Nevertheless, these groups’ shares of marginal benefits are generally considerably lower and the marginal benefit shares of poorer quintile groups are correspondingly higher. For primary and secondary education and for primary health centers, expanding the overall level of provision delivers a pattern of marginal benefits that is significantly more pro-poor than average shares indicate. Although panel estimates show a pattern of marginal benefits that is somewhat less pro-poor than cross-sectional results suggest, they do not change the finding that the pattern of marginal benefits is more pro-poor than the overall pattern of average benefits.

Keywords: benefit incidence analysis, average benefit, marginal benefit, health services, education services, Lao PDR

JEL Classification: D12, E21, H31

Suggested Citation

Warr, Peter G. and Menon, Jayant and Rasphone, Sitthiroth, How Expansion of Public Services Affects the Poor: Benefit Incidence Analysis for the Lao People's Democratic Republic (May 1, 2013). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2269447 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2269447

Peter G. Warr (Contact Author)

Australian National University (ANU) - Crawford School of Public Policy ( email )

ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
J.G. Crawford Building, #132, Lennox Crossing
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200
Australia

Jayant Menon

Asian Development Bank ( email )

6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City 1550
Metro Manila
Philippines

Asian Development Bank Institute ( email )

Kasumigaseki Building 8F 3-2-5
Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo, 100-6008
Japan

Sitthiroth Rasphone

Australian National University (ANU) ( email )

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601
Australia

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