Efficiency of public health expenditures in GCC : a focus on Kuwait

Abstract EN

This paper follows the frame work of (Afonso and Aubyn ,2004), aiming to assess the efficiency of health spending in GCC countries with a focus on Kuwait during 2000-2017.

This area where public expenditure is for great importance so that finding have strong implications in what concerns public spending efficiency.

This will be of great importance for all GCC countries especially Kuwait after being affected by double shock covid-19 outbreak and lower oil prices which put more pressure on its fiscal position and force the government to rethink to pass new debt law allowing Kuwait to access the global debt capital markets and diversify its funding options.

The paper tries to measure efficiency of public spending in health in Kuwait during 2000-2017 by applying two non-parametric methodologies: Free Disposal Hull and Data Envelopment Analysis.

The empirical results show that on average, public spending in health sector is inefficient, which means that performance in this sector can be enhanced without increasing expenditure.

For example, it was found that in the health sector the outcomes can be increased by 35% without spending more resources, also it was found that the same results can be achieved by reducing public spending by 23%.