Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2013 in the subject Politics - Region: South Asia, National Institute of Development Administration, course: Fiscal and Monetary Policy Analysis and Management, language: English, abstract: In this paper, there is an attempt to compile evidence on the benefit incidence of public education and health spending in 2005 in Thailand. The 2005 data marks an improvement over Medhi Krongkaew’s 1979 analysis due to changes in the creation of the quintile income groups and marked improvement in the data collected on the whole. This paper is used to ascertain which income groups tend to benefit more from social spending. The paper also explores the relationship between benefit incidence on the one hand and indicators of access to education and health services and social outcomes on the other using simple measures of association. In addition, the paper explores the policy implications of these findings. In general, there is an attempt to enhance the position of the poor as the total (all) post-expenditure saw a major improvement in the Gini coefficient to record 0.2818 from 0.3056 or a rate of improvement of 2.38%. On the basis of these findings, it could be concluded that government’s interventions or subsidies on the two functional areas is pro-poor or progressive as it seeks to favor the poor. This will enhance the position of the poor as to accessing these two facilities in Thailand. We make a number of policy recommendations to enhance government’s efforts in eradicating poverty in the not distant future.

Essay from the year 2013 in the subject Economics - Case Scenarios, grade: "none", , course: PhD, language: English, abstract: Abstract: To reduce inequality in income distribution and reduce the poverty social welfare spending in Thailand particularly on education and health services is regarded as one of the effective instruments. Policy makers agree that public subsidies on education and health produce positive externalities and have spill over effect in the society. This research is designed to analyse the effects of public spending of education and health on income distribution which examine the pre-expenditure and post-expenditure income distribution in Thailand. It follows the benefit incidence analysis (BIA) that is a method of computing the distribution of public expenditure across different demographic groups, such as women and men. The procedure involves allocating per unit public subsidies (for example, expenditure per student for the education sector) according to individual utilization rates of public services. This paper aims at examine who are the real beneficiaries from the government expenditure. The study uses the quantitative method where data are used of 2010. From the benefit incidence analysis on the public expenditure on education it seems that education system is pro-poor and health care system are not pro-poor rather pro-rich. The poor people can be benefited more from the primary and secondary education and less benefited from the tertiary education. However, overall expenditure on education is favourable to the poor which proves from the income share of household. In this perspective, The Thai government should emphasize on higher education for poor by providing special loan created only for them and universities should also be adopted the policy so that poor income class people can access the opportunity. Government can increase the charge and fees for private higher education where normally rich households send their children. By doing so, government can earn more and spend for poor people. Regarding the healthcare system, Thai government should emphasize on preventive care than curative from which the whole nation will be benefitted. The programmes should be continued and more expenditure should be added to this. Government should charge tax on private healthcare system that will help collect more money and invest for the poor people. Since rich tends to go to the private hospitals, government will take money from the rich and spend for poor people. This process will minimize the income inequality.

Objectives: 1. To answer public concern over a question on 'who benefits from government health spending?' after implementation of the policy on universal coverage (UC) of health care in 2001. 2. To investigate changes in health service use and net government subsidies for health gained by different socio-economic groups of Thais prior to and after UC. Methods: The research employed benefit incidence analysis (BIA) which included the analyses of health service use and out-of-pocket payments of nationally representative households from the 2001 and 2003 Health and Welfare Survey (HWS) conducted by the National Statistical Office, and the amount of government subsidies for ambulatory services and hospitalization at both public and private facilities. Socio-economic status of Thais were categorized into five groups ranging from the richest to the poorest quintiles by using equivalent household income per capita and the asset index. Concentration index (CI) was used as a measure to assess equity in health service use and the distribution of government health subsidies. CI ranges from plus to minus 1, whereas minus indicates preferential benefit the poor, and the more minus value, the more pro-poor nature, and vice versa. Results: After implementation of the UC policy, health insurance coverage of Thais increased from 71% in 2001 to 95% in 2003. The majority of the poor in rural areas were covered by the UC scheme. The CI of ambulatory service use at health centres, district hospitals, and provincial hospitals were more pro-poor after achieving UC (changing from -0.29, -0.26, and -0.04 in 2001 to -0.36, -0.32, and -0.08 in 2003, respectively). The CI of hospitalization increased their negative values from -0.079 in 2001 to -0.121 in 2003. Also, the distribution of net government subsidies for health showed a more pro-poor nature with a change in the concentration indices from -0.044 in 2001 to -0.123 in 2003. There was no significant difference in the distribution of government subsidies when equivalised household income per capita and the asset index were used as classifiers, or using national aggregated and regional unit costs of health services. In conclusion, the UC policy further improved equity in access to and utilization of health services, and the distribution of net government subsidies. Key factors influencing the improvements of equity in the Thai health care system include 1) the expansion of health insurance coverage, 2) the removal of financial barriers, and 3) the promotion of primary care as the main contractor of the scheme.

This paper assesses the efficiency of government expenditure on education and health in 38 countries in Africa in 1984-95, both in relation to each other and compared with countries in Asia and the Western Hemisphere. The results show that, on average, countries in Africa are less efficient than countries in Asia and the Western Hemisphere; however, education and health spending in Africa became more efficient during that period. The assessment further suggests that improvements in educational attainment and health output in African countries require more than just higher budgetary allocations.