[Tax expenses and their impacts on performance in health and education]

The increase in tax expenditures is a trend observed in many countries. In Brazil, the increase in tax expenditures was marked, with an increase of 47% between 2006 and 2011. Based on data from Latin American countries and the OECD, this paper investigates whether countries with high tax expenditures in relation to budget expenditures perform better in the areas of health and education. The results show that the group of Latin American countries spends much more via taxation than the OECD countries, with Brazil showing a relatively low relationship between tax expenditures and total expenditures for health and education. In relation to social indicators, this article suggests that countries that use tax expenditures more intensively have systematically worse social indicators in education and health.