Efficiency of Public Expenditure on Health: a performance analysis for the Brazilian capital cities

Abstract

The changes that have taken place in our country over the last decades have instigated public managers, professionals that work in the public sector and academics to seek solutions for the assessment of efficiency. Our society no longer accepts that the high values collected through taxes are spent irresponsibly, thus requiring an efficient performance of the public sphere. In terms of public expenditures, it is noted that some governmental areas require a much higher volume of resources than others, an example being health expenditures. In view of this, the work aims, through data envelopment analysis, to evaluate the efficiency of each of the twenty-seven Brazilian capital cities with regard to public health services. According to the classification adopted, only eleven of these cities presented a performance classified as excellent, that is, they were considered efficient. In the group of capitals with good performance, there are eleven capital cities. Five capital cities are of poor performance.