Education and Poverty in Mexico. An Analysis of Efficiency at State Level

Abstract

The aim of this study is to identify the efficient use of inputs of higher education in reduce poverty in the country entities. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology with bootstrap is applied to strengthen the results; using as inputs spending on education and higher level students in the year 2010, as desirable output, state GDP and as undesirable output to the population living in poverty in 2014. The results show that while any entity was efficient in the use of inputs, Nuevo Leon was the state that got the closest level to the optimum with 77%. On the contrary Chiapas, with 41% efficiency. It concludes that the inefficient use of resources in higher education affects the highest levels of poverty in the states.