On Measuring Aggregate "Social Efficiency"

On Measuring Aggregate "Social Efficiency"

Cross-country comparisons of social indicators controlling for income and/or social spending have been widely used to measure and explain "social efficiency" analogously to "technical efficiency" in production. The author argues...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Ravallion, Martin
Format:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2014
Subjects:	CROSS-COUNTRY EXPERIENCE SOCIAL INDICATORS INCOME GAPS PUBLIC SPENDING INCOME ESTIMATES SOCIAL CHOICE TECHNICAL EVALUATION PRODUCTION CAPACITY MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS LIFE EXPECTANCY (HUMAN) SOCIAL CONDITIONS HEALTH CARE DELIVERY AGGREGATE INCOME AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION AVERAGE INCOME BENCHMARK COUNTRY LEVEL COUNTRY PERFORMANCE CROSS-COUNTRY COMPARISONS CROSS-COUNTRY DIFFERENCES CROSS-SECTIONAL DATA DATA SETS DEVELOPING COUNTRIES DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE DEVELOPMENT REPORTS ECONOMIC THEORY EMPIRICAL FINDINGS EMPIRICAL MODEL EMPIRICAL MODELS EMPIRICAL WORK EXPECTED VALUES EXPLANATORY VARIABLES FUNCTIONAL FORM FUNCTIONAL FORMS GDP GDP PER CAPITA HEALTH CARE HEALTH INDICATORS HEALTH OUTCOMES HOUSEHOLD INCOMES HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INCOME INCOME DIFFERENCES INCOME DISTRIBUTION INCOME INEQUALITY INCOMES INDIVIDUAL COUNTRIES INEFFICIENCY INFANT MORTALITY INPUT PRICES INVERTED-U RELATIONSHIP LIFE EXPECTANCY LINEAR RELATIONSHIP LOG INCOME MEAN ERROR TERM MEAN INCOME MEASUREMENT ERROR MEASUREMENT ERRORS MORTALITY NATIONAL INCOME NEGATIVE GROWTH POLICY DISCUSSIONS POLICY RESEARCH POSITIVE CORRELATION POVERTY MEASURES POVERTY REDUCTION PRODUCERS PRODUCTION FUNCTION PRODUCTION FUNCTIONS PRODUCTION INPUTS PRODUCTION SET PUBLIC HEALTH REDUCING POVERTY SERIES DATA SOCIAL OUTCOMES SOCIAL POLICY SOCIAL SERVICES TIME SERIES WAGES
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2003/11/2820082/measuring-aggregate-social-efficiency http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17903

Description
Summary:	Cross-country comparisons of social indicators controlling for income and/or social spending have been widely used to measure and explain "social efficiency" analogously to "technical efficiency" in production. The author argues that these methods are clouded in ambiguities about what exactly is being measured. Standard methods of measuring technical efficiency require assumptions that seem unlikely to hold for social indicators. In the context of a simple parametric model of life expectancy, conditions are identified under which there will be a systematic pattern of bias in estimates of efficient health spending.

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