Title: Effect of public education expenditure on selected primary education outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa

Authors: Bernardin Senadza; Louis Sitsofe Hodey

Addresses: Department of Economics, University of Ghana, P.O. Box LG57, Legon, Accra, Ghana ' Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), University of Ghana, P.O. Box LG74, Legon, Accra, Ghana

Abstract: This paper investigates the effect of public education spending on primary education outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We use two primary education outcomes, namely: the net enrolment rate (NER) and persistence to the last grade of primary education (PLG). Employing the random effects estimation method for a panel of 18 Sub-Saharan African countries from 2000 to 2012, we find that public education expenditure exerts positive significant effects on both the NER and the PLG. The results suggest that schooling for all is attainable if governments in SSA are willing to give public expenditures on primary education a priority.

Keywords: public education expenditure; education outcomes; random effects; Sub-Saharan Africa; SSA; primary education; net enrolment rate; persistence to the last grade.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEED.2015.075794

International Journal of Education Economics and Development, 2015 Vol.6 No.4, pp.314 - 330

Received: 17 Sep 2015
Accepted: 30 Oct 2015
Published online: 05 Apr 2016 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article