EDUCATION INDICATORS: An International Perspective
Notes on Figures and Tables for Indicator 41
All countries
The service of public debt is included in total public expenditure.
Because the fiscal year has a different starting date in different countries, within-country Consumer Price Indexes (CPI) were used to adjust the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) indices to account for inflation.
Australia
Expenditure for higher education includes expenditure for vocational secondary education, as it is taught in institutions of higher education, and are from 1992. Expenditures for preprimary, primary, and secondary and private higher education are from 1991.
Belgium and the Czech Republic
All education expenditure figures are derived from figure for public education expenditure per GDP multiplied by current/total expenditure ratio for total public and private education expenditure.
Canada
Preprimary expenditures are not calculated separately, rather, they are included in primary-secondary and higher education.
Denmark
Expenditure data for publicly supported private schools include capital expenditures.
Finland
Public/private expenditure ratio from 1991 is used to calculate education expenditures.
Public/private ratio reported for "all levels" is used for both primary-secondary and higher education.
West Germany (former)
Includes contributions to the pension funds of teachers who are civil servants.
Expenditure data for publicly supported private schools include capital expenditures.
Italy
All education expenditure figures are derived from figure for public education expenditure per GDP multiplied by current/total expenditure ratio for total public and private education expenditure.
Norway
Expenditure data for publicly supported private schools include capital expenditures.
Total public expenditure figure is from 1990-91.
Sweden
Calculated figures from OECD, National Accounts; 1/2 (1991) + 1/2 (1992).
All expenditure figures include capital expenditures.
Switzerland
All education expenditure figures are derived from figure for public education expenditures per GDP, multiplied by current/total expenditure ratio for total public and private education expenditure.
Expenditure data for publicly supported private schools include capital expenditures.
Education expenditure data include only net expenditures for ancillary services.
United Kingdom
All education expenditure figures are derived from figure for public education expenditure per GDP, multiplied by current/total expenditure ratio for total public and private education expenditure.
Excludes expenditure on nursing and paramedical education.
Technical Notes
Methodology used for adjusting inflation rates
Although most countries report education expenditure for the calendar year (CY) 1992, eight countries have provided figures for financial years starting in April, June, or other months of 1991. Because of price inflation, the expenditure figures of the latter countries are not strictly comparable to those of countries that report for January-December 1992. For example, if a country with a 6 percent annual inflation rate submits expenditure figures for the financial year July 1991 to June 1992, that country's outlays will be about 3 percent less, simply because of inflation over a 6-month period, than if the same country had provided data for CY 1992. For this reason, it is important to adjust the figures of the countries that do not report by calendar year to correct for inflation. Such adjustments affect finance indicators 41, 42, and 43. The remaining finance indicators 44 and 45, are not affected because they consist of ratios in which the numerators and denominators already pertain to the same period.
Indicators 41 and 42 compare educational expenditures with variables that normally are reported for CY 1992namely, GDP in the case of indicator 42 and total public expenditure for all purposes in the case of indicator 41. To make the numerators and denominators of these indicators compatible, it is necessary to adjust the expenditure figures of countries that have not reported educational spending for the 1992 calendar year. The required adjustment is:
EXPADJ = EXP (1 + INF)
where EXP and EXPADJ are unadjusted and adjusted expenditures, respectively, and INF is the inflation rate for the number of months between the country's financial year and CY 1992. For example, if the country's fiscal year begins in July 1991, INF would be the inflation rate during a 6-month period, or one-half the annual inflation rate between 1991 and 1992.
An exception to this procedure applies to two countries, Australia and New Zealand, for which national accounts data, including GSP and total public expenditure, are not reported by calendar year. For these two countries only, the educational expenditure figures have been adjusted to correspond to the year for which GDP is reported rather than to CY 1992.
Two limitations of these adjustment procedures should be recognized. First, the adjustments are for changes in the general (GDP) price level but not in the price level for education. No suitable purchasing power parity (PPP) figures are available that pertain specifically to education. Second, no allowance has been made for real growth in educational expenditure (increases in excess of inflation) that might have taken place during the 6-month or 9-month periods covered by the adjustments. It would only be possible to take real growth into account retroactively, after data for the 1992-93 financial year become available. Nevertheless, the adjustment for inflation does eliminate one significant source of noncomparability of expenditure figures, thereby enhancing the validity of the international comparisons of educational spending.
