Efficiency evaluation and influencing factors analysis of governmental expenditure on preschool education

Abstract

With the DEA-Tobit analysis method and based on the panel statistic of thirty-one provinces from 1998 to 2015 in China, this paper studies the efficiency upon local government expenditure of preschool education and its' influence factors. First, the efficiencies on preschool education spending of local governments, including the overall technical efficiency, scale technical efficiency and pure technical efficiency, were evaluated by the data envelopment analysis approach (DEA). Based on the research result from the 1st step, Tobit model was used to investigate the connection of the efficiency measurement outcomes and preschool education policy variable fiscal decentralization, the connection of the efficiency measurement outcomes and social factors, such as density of population, GDP per capita and the public education degrees and so on. With the explanation of the measurement outcomes, it is noticed that the expenditure efficiency on local government preschool education has improved and have showed significant differences in CN. The influences of degree of urbanization, the density of population and education degree upon the efficiency of governmental preschool education spending and GDP per capita are positive. After the control of population, social and economic factors, the influence of fiscal decentralization upon the efficiencies on preschool education public spending is negative, the efficiencies on preschool education spending of local government has been greatly improved by preschool education policy in China.