Public Services and the Poor in Laos》.pdf

World Development Vol. 66, pp. 371–382, 2015 0305-750X/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. /locate/worlddev /10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.08.015 Public Services and the Poor in Laos PETER WARR a, JAYANT MENON b and SITTHIROTH RASPHONE c,* a Australian National University, Canberra, Australia b Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines c National Economic Research Institute, Vientiane, Laos Summary. — Both cross sectional and panel methods of analysis for Laos confirm that for public education and health services, the poorest quintile groups receive the smallest shares of total provision of these services. Nevertheless, poor groups’ shares of an increase in the level of provision—their marginal shares—are generally higher than these average shares. For primary and lower secondary edu- cation and for primary health centers, expanding the overall level of provision delivers a pattern of marginal effects that is significantly more pro-poor than average shares indicate and the degree to which the poor benefit increases with the level of provision. 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Key words — benefit incidence analysis, average benefit, marginal benefit, health services, education services, Lao PDR 1. INTRODUCTION the sole objective of provision of these services. The benefits received by other soc