Ravallion, Martin2014-04-172014-04-172003-11https://hdl.handle.net/10986/17903Cross-country comparisons of social indicators controlling for income and/or social spending have been widely used to measure and explain "social efficiency" analogously to "technical efficiency" in production. The author argues that these methods are clouded in ambiguities about what exactly is being measured. Standard methods of measuring technical efficiency require assumptions that seem unlikely to hold for social indicators. In the context of a simple parametric model of life expectancy, conditions are identified under which there will be a systematic pattern of bias in estimates of efficient health spending.en-USCC BY 3.0 IGOCROSS-COUNTRY EXPERIENCESOCIAL INDICATORSINCOME GAPSPUBLIC SPENDINGINCOME ESTIMATESSOCIAL CHOICETECHNICAL EVALUATIONPRODUCTION CAPACITYMEASUREMENT SYSTEMSLIFE EXPECTANCY (HUMAN)SOCIAL CONDITIONSHEALTH CARE DELIVERYAGGREGATE INCOMEAGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIONAVERAGE INCOMEBENCHMARKCOUNTRY LEVELCOUNTRY PERFORMANCECROSS-COUNTRY COMPARISONSCROSS-COUNTRY DIFFERENCESCROSS-SECTIONAL DATADATA SETSDEVELOPING COUNTRIESDEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCEDEVELOPMENT REPORTSECONOMIC THEORYEMPIRICAL FINDINGSEMPIRICAL MODELEMPIRICAL MODELSEMPIRICAL WORKEXPECTED VALUESEXPLANATORY VARIABLESFUNCTIONAL FORMFUNCTIONAL FORMSGDPGDP PER CAPITAHEALTH CAREHEALTH INDICATORSHEALTH OUTCOMESHOUSEHOLD INCOMESHUMAN DEVELOPMENTINCOMEINCOME DIFFERENCESINCOME DISTRIBUTIONINCOME INEQUALITYINCOMESINDIVIDUAL COUNTRIESINEFFICIENCYINFANT MORTALITYINPUT PRICESINVERTED-U RELATIONSHIPLIFE EXPECTANCYLINEAR RELATIONSHIPLOG INCOMEMEAN ERROR TERMMEAN INCOMEMEASUREMENT ERRORMEASUREMENT ERRORSMORTALITYNATIONAL INCOMENEGATIVE GROWTHPOLICY DISCUSSIONSPOLICY RESEARCHPOSITIVE CORRELATIONPOVERTY MEASURESPOVERTY REDUCTIONPRODUCERSPRODUCTION FUNCTIONPRODUCTION FUNCTIONSPRODUCTION INPUTSPRODUCTION SETPUBLIC HEALTHPUBLIC SPENDINGREDUCING POVERTYSERIES DATASOCIAL OUTCOMESSOCIAL POLICYSOCIAL SERVICESTIME SERIESWAGES10.1596/1813-9450-3166