ANALYSIS OF THE EFFICIENCY OF INVESTMENTS IN EDUCATION, HEALTH AND URBANISM IN THE SEMIARNED OF THE STATE OF RIO GRANDE DO NORTE

Abstract

This study has as main problem investigate the degree of efficiency and quality in the public expenditures on education, health and urbanism of the 59 municipalities of the Semi-arid state of Rio Grande do Norte and list possible ways to solve the problem. For that, the methodology of Data Envelopment Analysis [DEA] was adopted. The main results indicate a worrying degree of inefficiency in the management of public resources. Specifically, it was found that on average 70% of the resources allocated to the respective areas are wasted. In addition, approximately nine out of ten municipalities inadequately apply resources in education, health and urban planning. Additionally, it is verified that only 10% of the municipalities, that is, six of them were considered efficient in the management of these resources. The five worst observed results occurred respectively in Rafael Godeiro, João Dias, Porto do Mangue, Taboleiro Grande and Viçosa. Where the average level of productive inefficiency was around 67%. Another important finding shows that 25.42% of the municipalities analyzed waste at least half of their resources. Of these, only 1/5 has a population of over 10,000 inhabitants. On the other hand, 73.33% of the analyzed municipalities that waste in the best of the hypotheses half of the resources destined to the mentioned areas have population less than 4,000 inhabitants. This characterization brings strong evidence that these localities are working with increasing returns to scale. That is, they operate their services below the optimum capacity of production. A possible solution to the problem could be the joint provision of education, health and urban planning services.