Análise da eficiência dos municípios do Estado do Pará na aplicação dos recursos públicos em educação

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between the efficiency of public spending on basic education in the municipalities of the State of Pará and regional disparity, using Data Envelopment Analysis – DEA. Planning plays a crucial role in the distribution of public resources by the government, granting greater efficiency in financial and economic allocation to meet the needs of society. Discussions about the efficiency of public spending are essential, as improvements in the quality of public investments result in greater efficiency of such spending. In the educational context, one of the areas most affected when the allocation of public funds becomes ineffective, various variables arise, including a significant factor, regional disparity, making the research more complex. The research data were collected from secondary government sources, such as documents and reports from federal, state and municipal public institutions. The analysis was conducted in three parts. The first part evaluated the efficiency of educational public spending in the municipalities of Pará in 2019, using inputs such as spending on education, the number of teachers, and the number of students, and outputs such as the IDEBs for the fifth and ninth grades of elementary school as well as the literacy rate. The results showed that eighteen municipalities were classified as efficient, while two demonstrated moderate inefficiency. In the second part, the municipalities were reanalyzed considering only one input: spending on education. The results of this stage indicated that only four municipalities were efficient, and there was an increase in the number of municipalities with moderate inefficiency, from two to eight. Finally, a longitudinal analysis of the efficiency of public spending in the municipalities of Pará was conducted, highlighting issues arising from regional disparity.