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Achieving economic growth is an important goal of any country. However, in recent years it has increasingly been realised that economic growth is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for human development. Pakistan provides a good example of a country which has historically enjoyed a respectable GDP growth rate and yet failed to translate this positive development into a satisfactory level of human development. Since its independence in 1947, Pakistan's development policies have focused primarily on realising high economic growth and only incidentally on the task of providing social necessities. Such a process has given rise to a structure of production and distribution which has been only indirectly responsive to social goals. However, there is now a growing realisation that we could have done much better had we stressed human resource investments relatively more. The Education For All (EFA) movement, started more than a decade ago in 1990, accelerated the process of human resource development in many developing countries. The EFA refers to the global commitment to ensure that all children would complete Primary Education of good quality. A decade after, the Millennium Declaration resolved to ensure, by 2015, that all children would be able to complete a course of primary education.

Achieving economic growth is an important goal of any country. However, in recent years it has increasingly been realized that economic growth is a necessary but not a suffi cient condition for human development. Albania provides a good example of a country which has historically enjoyed a respectable GDP growth rate and yet failed to translate this positive development into a satisfactory level of human development. Offi cial education spending is around 3 percent of GDP—much lower than most high growth emerging economies. Overall, the education system is under funded, but relatively effi cient in its use of inputs. However, some effi ciency measures may critically affect quality and, subsequently, demand. Spending composition and fi nancing arrangements should be signifi cantly enhanced to support the needed improvements in secondary enrollment, in higher education outcomes and in quality. The relatively large capital investment program and wage bill have left little room for spending on other teaching inputs that can affect quality. Across the transition countries are increasingly focusing on decentralization of decision-making authority to lower levels of government. The Albania has not been excluded from this phenomenon. Several years on, we fi nd that the process has progressed; the central government has delegated the administration of many activities to lower levels of government. While service responsibilities have been delegated or devolved, central governments are often reluctant (and often for valid reasons) to give up control over revenues.

It is widely accepted that there is an acute shortage of resources in the education sector in India. Economic reforms and associated requirements of fiscal discipline have aggravated the
situation. By contrast, however, official sources claim that significant progress has been made in financing education. This paper examines whether, and in what ways, this is so. It analyses major trends in public financing of education in India, including expenditures by the central government, state governments, other local bodies and the NGO sector. Foreign aid, which is transferred primarily through central government budgets, is also included. The paper examines the level and composition of public expenditure on education and the mechanisms of resource sharing, allocation and utilization, in aggregate as well as separately for the centre and the states. It finds that while expenditure in real terms increased during the 1990s it has stagnated since then. As a proportion of GDP the share of public expenditure on education has been less than 4 per cent. But there have been major changes in the composition and modalities of expenditure. Initially, education was the responsibility of individual states, but in 1976 it became the joint responsibility of both central and state governments. The analysis finds that the centre has been playing an increasingly important role in state education finance. Centrally sponsored schemes, which are partly funded by external aid, have been a critical part of centre-to-state transfers. Expenditure trends in seven states are studied to explore the possible impact of expenditure on education outcomes. It indicates that for the less developed states recent changes in education expenditure have improved access, but retention and learning achievements remain very low.

This bibliometric study analyzes the literature on the efficiency of public education expenditure using two types of bibliometric indicators: quantity (number of publications) and quality (impact by year, author, and journal). These indicators are calculated with worldwide results from the database Scopus from January 2000 to June 2018. The results were classified by author, journal, and publication country focusing on the methodological approach with the aim of identifying research trends in the field. The main results indicate the existence of a growing interest by scholars in the field since 2000, who have used different levels of comparative analysis (cross-country, regional, university, school, and student) and methods (parametric and nonparametric). In addition, nonparametric approaches have been most relevant in recent years thanks to the development of statistical software, their public access, and the possibility to work with a small database, which allows an easy implementation and use of cross-country comparisons. Finally, there is an evident lack of literature analyzing the efficiency of education expenditure in Latin American countries, which opens up a future line of research.

Purpose of the Study: The aim of the study is to find the causal relationship between public expenditure on education and the economic growth of 28 states of India. The paper tries to provide an answer to the research question of whether or not there exists any causal relationship between public expenditure on education and economic growth in the states of India. It also aims to investigate whether public expenditure creates economic growth or economic growth is the cause of public expenditure. Methodology: To examine the relationship between public expenditure on education and economic growth panel data of 28 states of India has been used in the study. To find the causal relation cointegration test has been applied. To examine the short-run and long-run dynamics between public expenditure on education and economic growth the study has adopted the Panel Vector Error Correction model. Main Findings: The result of the study indicates that there exists a long-run relationship between public expenditure on education and economic growth. A unidirectional causality between Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) and public expenditure on education is found in the long run. The meaning is that as growth takes place in the Indian states it pushes the government to increase its activities which stimulate an increase in public expenditure. Applications of this study: This study can be useful for the formulation of government policy. It can also be useful for students and research scholars. Novelty/Originality of this study: In this research work, a causal relationship is examined between economic growth and government expenditure especially in the education sector which is a major component of human resource development. All states are considered which are included in underdevelopment index and categorized as least developed; less developed and relatively developed states on the basis of some key socio-economic components.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the nexus among public expenditure allocated to education, educational attainment at secondary level and unemployment rate in India for the period 1987–2017.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs autoregressive distributed lags (ARDL) bound testing approach suggested by Pesaranet al.(2001) to find the long-run relationship among the variables. The causal linkages are investigated through block exogeneity test based on vector error correction model.FindingsThe empirical results indicate that educational attainment proxied by gross enrolment ratio at secondary level of education negatively affects unemployment rate in long run as well as in short run. However, public expenditure on education is ineffective in influencing both educational attainment and unemployment rate.Originality/valueThe study is the first empirical effort to identify the causal nexus among public expenditure on education, educational attainment and unemployment in the context of India.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at:https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-06-2019-0396