Inequitable distribution of public subsidies

Uniformly low prices throughout the education and health sector imply that high-cost services are much more subsidized than low-cost ones. The relatively poor therefore have little access to those high-cost services however. Contrary to policy, the poorest are not only denied a greater share, but they often get less than their proportionate share. In education, for example, subsidies for higher education are much greater than at the lower levels. Thus the very small percentage of the population able to gain access to higher education receives a large share of the education budget. Moreover, among these few, the rich are over-represented. The distribution of public health expenditures is also skewed in many countries. Most health facilities are in urban areas, where household incomes are on average higher.