On Measuring Aggregate "Social Efficiency"

Ravallion, Martin

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: CROSS-COUNTRY EXPERIENCE;    SOCIAL INDICATORS;    INCOME GAPS;    PUBLIC SPENDING;    INCOME ESTIMATES;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-3166
RP-ID  :  WPS3166

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Cross-country comparisons of socialindicators controlling for income and/or social spendinghave been widely used to measure and explain "socialefficiency" analogously to "technicalefficiency" in production. The author argues that thesemethods are clouded in ambiguities about what exactly isbeing measured. Standard methods of measuring technicalefficiency require assumptions that seem unlikely to holdfor social indicators. In the context of a simple parametricmodel of life expectancy, conditions are identified underwhich there will be a systematic pattern of bias inestimates of efficient health spending.