ESTIMATION OF HOUSEHOLD SPENDING ON
EDUCATION USING HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS
METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS AND APPLICATIONS
J. CLAUDE NDABANANIYE
PÔLE DE DAKAR
Outline
I.
Background and motivations: the critical need for
statistics on household spending on education
II. Estimation of HH expenditure on education
A.
B.
C.
Methodological aspects
Data collection
Estimation techniques
III. Selected exemples and the way forward
I. Background and motivations: the crucial need for
statistics on HH education spending (1)
• Policy analysis on education financing is often limited to
that of public resources because of a lack of data of HH
contributions
– Weak statistical capacity to regularly conduct surveys on
HH household
– Lack of standardized and comparable methodology on
private spending on education
• However, household financing of education is an
increasingly important issue in SSA countries
– Limited public resources to fund the expansion of
education systems
– Hence, increasing private financing will be inevitable
I. Background and motivations: the crucial need for
statistics on HH education spending (2)
• In this perspective it is essential to effectively
assess:
– The extent and nature of household contributions to education.
• Public-private cost sharing structure? At what extent do HH
contribute at different levels of education? What items do they
finance?
– At HH level, it is important to assess the magnitude of education
spending compared to other items (health, food, etc.).
• The relative weight of education funding in total HH spending (by
income level, by level of education, by main items, etc.)
II. Estimation of HH expenditure on education:
A. Methodological aspects
What should/has to be considered as HH expenditure on
education?
1) Expenditure that are clearly included as HH expenditure: direct
expenditure related to attending school
– Registration fees (and other associated fees: examination fees, parents’
association fees, etc.)
– Uniforms and school supplies (text books, sport clothing, other
compulsory supplies)
– Ancillary services: boarding fees, canteens and cafeterias,
transportation
2) Expenditure ‘not’ included (open to discussion):
– additional expenditure not compulsory/ not directly related to attending school
Table1. Conceptual framework for classifying HH education spending
Uniforms and school
supplies
School/tuition fees
Direct expenditure related to attending -
school
-
Indirect
Expenditure ‘not’
included
Source: Pôle de Dakar
Registration fees,
Examination fees
Parents’ association
fees,
Other enrolment
associated fess
Ancillary services and
other expenses
-
Uniforms,
Text books,
Sport clothing and
Other ‘compulsory’
school supplies
-
-
Additional books other
than those required,
Computer,
Educational games, etc.
-
-
-
Boarding fees,
Canteens and
cafeterias,
Transportation
Tutoring and
Special classes,
Meals outside school,
Pocket money,
Leisure and
Extra-curricular
activities, etc.
II. Estimation of HH expenditure on education:
B. Data collection
Where to find data on HH expenditure on education?
1) Educational institutions accounting books : line items
that show payments from households
- However, this may account for a relatively small part of total HH expenses
2) HH budget-consumption surveys. Widely available
but with many methodological challenges:
- Declared information is based on what is reported from memory (potential source of
errors and omissions)
- Varying understanding of expenditure on education
- In many cases: HH expenses on education can not be traced for each enrolled child
Estimation of HH expenditure on education:
C. Estimation techniques using HH surveys (1)
2 Cases:
Case 1) HH education spending is reported for each enrolled child and by
the main expenditure items (tuition fees, school supplies, uniform, etc.)
HH
number
Child
number
Level of
education
HH1
HH1_C1
Primary
HH1
HH1_C2
Lower sec
HH1
HH1_C3
Lower sec
HH2
HH2_C1
Preschool
Total
expenditure
School fees
Uniforms
School
supplies
Ancilary and
others
• In this case, the mean (average) expenditure per child, per education
level and per main items are derived as simple averages (taking into
account appropriate sampling procedure: sampling weights, etc.)
Estimation of HH expenditure on education:
C. Estimation techniques using HH surveys (2)
Case 2) Only the total expenditure on education for all enrolled
children in the HH is reported
HH number
Total expenditure
School fees
Uniforms
School supplies
Ancilary and others
HH1
HH2
HH3
Which estimation approach is appropriate in this case?
- Dividing the total HH expenditure by the number of children
- Considering sub-populations (hh with only preschool or
primary children
- Using econometric modeling to estimate mean/average
expenditure per child
Estimation of HH expenditure on education:
C. Estimation techniques using HH surveys (3)
• Suppose an education system with five levels of education.
• For each HH, total expenditure on education equals the sum of expenditure for all
schooled children. Thus, the regression model can be written as :
Total expenditure at HH level =
(expenditure in preschool) x number of children enrolled in preschool
+ (expenditure in primary) x number of children enrolled in primary
+ (expenditure in lower secondary) x number of children enrolled lower secondary
+ (expenditure in upper secondary) x number of children enrolled in upper secondary
+ (expenditure in tertiary) x number of children enrolled in tertiary education
• Refers to an accounting idendity not a behavioral nor an equilibrium relationship
• (parameters to be estimated): the coefficients associated with the number of
schooled children for each education level represent the mean/average cost per
child at that level
• OLS regression w/o the constant term (if no schooled child, HH educ spending=0)
• The model may then be reproduced by type of institution (public / private),
by income quintile, by residence (rural / urban), by gender, etc
Estimation of HH expenditure on education:
Robustness check
• The estimation technique in order to derive statistically significant and
population - representative estimates must ensure a number of rules of
consistency/robustness:
– Average spending per child always positive and highly significant
– Respect of sampling weights in order to be able to extrapolate
estimated averages to the entire population.
– Ensure referential thresholds: Eg. Estimated total (public+private)
average expenditure per child must be between the estimated cost in
the public school and private school.
• Some limitations:
– Some HH expenses can benefit from economies of scale, i.e. not
proportional to the number of children.
– Data are based on retrospective surveying. So, there are potential
errors and omissions that need to be taken into account
Selected exemples:
Average HH education spending by child and education level in
15 SSA countries (2004 USD PPP)
Selected exemples:
Breakdown of HH education spending by main items, 15 SSA
countries (%)
School fees
Cote d'Ivoire (2002)
School supplies and learning materials
37.5
40.7
Tanzania (2007)
21.9
73.8
Average (15 countries)
19.9
54.8
0%
20%
33.9
40%
60%
Other spending
6.3
11.3
80%
100%
Selected exemples:
Cost-sharing between Households and the Government and
Distributive Equity issues
Household expenditure on education
as % of public curret expenditure on
education, by level (Average for 15
African countries)
Distribution (%) of Enrolled Pupils by
Wealth Quintile and Education Level,
(Average for 15 African countries)
Way forward:
Dedicated household spending surveys
– Standardized an comparable methodology: clear
definitions and boundaries taking into account
developing countries’ context
– Development of a dedicated questionnaire on HH
education spending
– Capacity building on data collection and data
analysis
THANK YOU
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT
WWW.POLEDAKAR.ORG
J. CLAUDE NDABANANIYE
JC.NDABANANIYE@POLEDAKAR.ORG