Publication: Financial Crises and Social Spending : The Impact of the 2008-2009 Crisis
Date
2010-06-18
ISSN
Published
2010-06-18
Author(s)
Lewis, Maureen
Verhoeven, Marijn
Abstract
This paper examines the impacts of the
2008-2009 economic crisis on social spending, drawing on
evidence at the global, national, and household levels, to
provide a sense of the nature and the effects of the
worldwide downturn on spending in the social sectors. It
summarizes existing empirical evidence on the relationship
between crises, or other serious dislocations on education,
health, HIV/AIDS, and nutrition as background to the
analysis of growth and social spending. The paper analyzes
the relationship between GDP growth, growth in education and
health spending, and projects expenditure responses to 2012,
to illustrate how expected changes in future economic growth
are likely to affect both absolute spending and growth in
social expenditures. It provides an analysis of the effects
on HIV/AIDS spending, a relatively new funding category and
therefore outside the purview of the econometric analysis.
It examines the responsiveness of Overseas Development
Assistance (ODA) to financial crises in terms of subsequent
allocations from the developed world, and the impacts on ODA
spending for education and health in developing and
transition countries. The paper concludes by citing existing
evidence on regional impacts of the crisis on public
spending, and the effects on household budgets in Eastern
Europe and Central Asia, the region hardest hit by the
current crisis.
Citation
“Lewis, Maureen; Verhoeven, Marijn. 2010. Financial Crises and Social Spending : The Impact of the 2008-2009 Crisis. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/89b15d8f-550b-518a-8ed2-1b22db758efa License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”