Uma análise da eficiência dos gastos públicos com educação nos municípios do Estado do Amazonas no período de 2013 a 2017

Purpose: This article aimed to evaluate the efficiency of public expenditure in the municipalities of the State of Amazonas with primary education in the years 2013 to 2017 by building a ranking of the efficiency of the municipalities relating the results obtained in Ideb by each municipality in the period, under the counterpart of the values of expenses paid for basic education, average number of students enrolled in the period, average expenditure per student and GDP per capita of each municipality. Methodology: To evaluate the efficiency of the 37 Amazonian municipalities in the sample, the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique was used. The variables analyzed include municipal data on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), number of inhabitants, number of students enrolled, spending on education and Ideb notes for the period. Results: The results showed that only eight municipalities (21.6%) were classified as efficient, and that these municipalities were those with the worst starting conditions, in terms of average wealth and educational performance, and that made the lowest expenses per enrolled student, which reaffirms the finding of diminishing returns to scale in education. The least efficient municipalities, on the other hand, were those with the best starting condition in terms of GDP per capita and which presented high expenditures per student, but which reached the worst performances in the 2017 Ideb. Contributions of the Study: Considering the amounts spent by Amazonian municipalities on basic education, taking into account the size and performance in the Ideb of each municipality in the period under analysis, the research seeks to demonstrate the efficiency in the application of spending on basic education, providing useful and relevant information for a more qualified and efficient allocation of public resources in education, providing improvements in the social aspects of the population.