Analysis of the efficiency of public spending on health actions and services in Brazilian capitals.
Efficiency; Public Spending; Health; Brazilian Capitals; DEA.
This research aims to measure and explain the economic efficiency of public health services and actions (ASPS) carried out by the capitals of the twenty seven Federative Units of Brazil, from 2006 to 2015. To that end, the financial data of the government health expenditure for each capital were collected through the Brazilian Finance System (FINBRA) of the National Treasury Secretariat (STN). In turn, the social, economic and population data were obtained from the statistical bases of the Department of Informatics of the Unified Health System (DATASUS), the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), the Health Council Monitoring System (SIACS), National Sanitation Information System (SNIS) and United Nations Development Program (UNDP). For the treatment and analysis of the data, the research uses in the first stage the method of Data Envelopment Data Analysis (DEA) oriented to products. The decision between the constant scale (RCE) or variable (RVE) return model will take into account the characteristics of the data and the results of the correlation tests between them. In order to do so, the per capita expenditures involved in the health governance function are considered as inputs, and as outputs the per capita quantitatives of: families enrolled by the Family Health Program, vaccinations, hospitalizations, outpatient procedures, equipment, health facilities , beds, doctors, other health professionals (except doctors) and inverse of the infant mortality rate. In the second stage of the research, regression analysis by Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) was used using panel data with fixed effects. The dependent variable was the efficiency scores found in the first stage and as independent variables: population size, HDI Education, educational level and age of the manager, number of members of the Municipal Health Council, percentage of the population assisted with water supply, GDP per capita, urbanization rate, percentage of population benefiting from sanitary sewage and geographic region where each capital is located.