Abstract

VALDES IGLESIAS, Edson; CERNICHIARO REYNA, Christopher  and  MENDEZ SALAZAR, Marco Antonio. Government Spending Performance and Social Deprivation at the Subnational Level, 2014-2022. Inv. Econ [online]. 2025, vol.84, n.331, pp.172-199.  Epub Aug 29, 2025. ISSN 0185-1667.  https://doi.org/10.22201/fe.01851667p.2025.331.89280.

Part of the empirical literature indicates that government provision of health, education and basic infrastructure have positive effects on social deprivation reduction; however, there is a need to analyze the efficiency in the achievement of this purpose. Therefore, the objective of this research is to determine whether human resources in the education and health sectors, and public spending on social infrastructure, education and health have efficiently reduced vulnerability due to social deprivation at the subnational level from 2014 to 2022 in Mexico. Data envelopment analysis with undesirable products and a slack-based efficiency measure were used to characterize efficiency levels, both showed regional and temporal differences. Additionally, the importance of each category of government spending and human resources was determined through a neural network, concluding that the resources allocated to secondary and higher education are the most important in determining state-level efficiency when the aim is to reduce social deprivation.

Keywords : Efficiency; public spending; social deprivation; data envelopment analysis; neural network; C45; D61; I14; I24.

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