EFFICIENCY OF EDUCATION EXPENDITURE IN OECD COUNTRIES

Based on data published in world educational databases, we study public education expenditure in OECD countries. First, we analyse the development of education expenditure from different viewpoints. For this purpose, we use three indicators, namely government expenditure on education as % of gross domestic product, education expenditure as % of gross national income, and expenditure on education as % of total government expenditure. Second, we apply data envelopment analysis to assess the efficiency of education systems in selected OECD countries with regard to socio-economic outcomes. We design two alternative DEA models in which the roles of teachers and students are different in the sense of inputs and outputs to reflect the ambiguous character of the students/teacher ratio. Significant differences among observed countries are identified in the development of selected indicators as well as in efficiency of national education systems.