This Objective of this research is to analyse the effect of health, education, and social protection function expenditure on poverty levels in regencies/cities in Bengkulu Province. The study uses panel data sourced from the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bureau of Statistics, with a panel data regression approach. The selection of the estimation model shows that the random effects model is the most appropriate model. Partial estimation results show that health function expenditure has a negative and significant effect on poverty levels, while education function expenditure has a positive and significant effect. Meanwhile, social protection expenditure does not have a significant effect on poverty. Simultaneously, all three spending variables have a significant effect on poverty levels. These findings indicate that health function expenditure has been effective in reducing poverty in Bengkulu Province. Conversely, the positive effect of education function expenditure indicates the existence of inefficiencies or inaccuracies in the allocation of the education budget in the short term in terms of poverty reduction. The insignificance of social protection expenditure indicates the need to improve program design and aid distribution mechanisms. Based on these results, this study recommends increasing the allocation and effectiveness of health function expenditure, sharpening the targets of education function expenditure to improve human resource quality, and strengthening social protection programs oriented towards long-term poverty mitigation in Bengkulu Province.
Septriani Septriani (Sun,) studied this question.