Dominance Testing of Social Sector Expenditures and Taxes in Africa

David Sahn and Stephen Younger

No 1999/172, IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: This paper examines the progressivity of social sector expenditures and taxes in eight sub-Saharan African countries. It uses dominance tests to determine whether health and education expenditures redistribute resources to the poor. The paper finds that social services are poorly targeted. Among the services examined, primary education tends to be most progressive, and university education is least progressive. The paper finds that many taxes are progressive as well as efficient, including some broad-based taxes such as the VAT and wage taxation. Taxes on kerosene and exports appear to be the only examples of regressive taxes.

Keywords: WP; demand; tax; function estimate; Lorenz curve; Taxes; health; education; income distribution; expenditure data; government of Guinea; test result; primary education; government of Côte d'Ivoire; government of Madagascar; government Uganda; Gini coefficient; government of Tanzania; budget data; dominance result; Health care; Income; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44
Date: 1999-12-01
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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