crespo cuaresma and vincelette
40
Figure 2.1 Average Educational Variables in HIPCs at Each Stage of the HIPC Initiative Process 45 40 35
percent
30 25 20 15 10 5
r co epe nd tit ar ion y sc rat ho e, ol st ud en t-t ea ch er ra ed tio uc at io to n e ta x l e pe xp nd en itu di re ed tu / uc re at io n ex pe nd itu G re/ D P
se
pr dro im p ar ou y tr sc at ho e, ol
0
pre–decision point
interim period
post–completion point
Source: Authors’ compilation based on World Bank data. Note: Sample in all figures includes the 34 countries listed in note 3.
The descriptive statistics suggest that on average, countries that have reached the HIPC Initiative decision point (that is, interim and post– completion point HIPCs) have significantly higher educational expenditures than do pre–decision point countries. As a share of GDP, education expenditures in post–decision point countries are more than 0.33 percentage point higher than the 4 percent average in pre–decision point countries. More important, in the post–completion point group, the share of educational expenditure in total public expenditures is largest and spending much more homogeneous than in the other two groups. On average, post–completion point countries spend 5 percent of output on education, almost 30 percent (1 percentage point of GDP) more than interim and pre–decision point HIPCs. Post–completion point HIPCs also display lower dropout and repetition rates than do other HIPCs. Dropout rates in these countries are on