Human development, social deprivation and efficiency of public spending – 02/06/2023 – Policies and Justice

Brazil is historically characterized by economic and social heterogeneity. Due to low economic growth, regional disparity has been aggravated, in view of the limitation of public spending that makes it difficult for the poorest to access the budget. However, there is still the essential debate about promoting human development and reducing social deprivation. In this sense, there is an urgent need for strategies to promote human development, taking into account the country’s financial constraints.

Traditional indicators do not take into account the good use of financial resources in favor of improving human development. It can be argued that regions that show high levels of social deprivation and high levels of social spending efficiency should be given priority for receiving public resources. This reveals the need to implement management tools that direct public resources to socially efficient regions.

To solve this problem, it is possible to evaluate the efficiency of the Brazilian mesoregions in transforming the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and public expenditures in human development. In fact, new indicators have revealed a new map for the distribution of social spending in Brazil. The Capability Index Adjusted by Social Efficiency (Ciase) shows which mesoregions are most efficient in converting financial resources into human development. Thus, the higher the Ciase, the more efficient the region under analysis.

Another relevant indicator is the Deprivation and Financial Responsibility based on Prioritization Index (DFRP), which shows which mesoregions have less human development, but manage to make the best use of available financial resources. In this way, the regions with the highest DFRP can be considered a priority for receiving public investment, in order to increase social well-being.

These indicators reveal a new map on human development and the efficiency of social spending in Brazil. For example, Ciase ranks the mesoregion of Campinas (SP) in the 64th position in the ranking among 129 analyzed in Brazil. For the organ, this rich region of São Paulo is behind Leste Goiano (GO) (49th position) in the ranking. This happens because, although the Campinas region has a better human development index, East Goiás made better use of scarce public resources to generate human development.

The DFRP indicator provides valuable information for public authorities, as it classifies which regions should have priority in receiving public resources. For example, the Mesoregion Metropolitana de Fortaleza (19th), Metropolitana do Recife (38th) and Metropolitana de Belém (45th) should have priority in receiving public resources to promote human development than rich regions of the state of São Paulo, such as Campinas (84th), Metropolitana Paulista (92nd), Piracicaba (94th) and the South Coast of São Paulo (115th).

This form of analysis is important, as it suggests that Brazilian authorities should discuss strategies to redistribute funds for social policies, prioritizing less developed regions, not only based on altruistic motives, but also based on the merits of efficiently converting limited resources. finance in human development. This opens an important debate about the reallocation of public resources in order to reduce the country’s heterogeneity and, consequently, increase social well-being in all Brazilian regions.

The editor, Michael França, asks each participant of the space “Politics and Justice” of the Sheet suggest a song to the readers. In this text, the one chosen by Diogo Ferraz was “Querelas do Brasil”, by Elis Regina.

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