Eficiencia del gasto público en sectores productivos clave del Ecuador

Abstract

CONDITION FOR PUBLICATION OF PROJECT. This research analyzes the efficiency of public spending in the sectors of education, health, security, and infrastructure across Ecuadorian provinces, aiming to optimize the allocation and use of resources. The central hypothesis states that a higher level of spending does not necessarily guarantee greater efficiency, which justifies the application of methodologies that compare relative performance among provinces. The study applied the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology with an input orientation, considering per capita public spending by sector as inputs and social indicators from INEC as outputs. The analysis covered the periods 2010–2014 and 2015–2019, constructing an empirical frontier of relative efficiency. The results showed that education and infrastructure concentrated the highest number of efficient provinces (11 and 9, respectively), while health and security registered lags (8 provinces each). No significant increase in intertemporal efficiency was observed, suggesting that spending grew in line with population needs rather than improvements in resource utilization. It is concluded that efficiency depends on budget allocation, institutional capacity, and scale effects, making it pertinent to apply models with variable returns to scale. Keywords: Productivity, social indicators, territorial equity, public management.