The quality of the public expenditure and the assessment of social policies: the budget of the Brazilian Ministry of Labor during 2000-2006

Over the last years, the interest in the quality of the public expenditures has increased in Brazil. Although general issues related to this subject are important, they do not replace an agency- specific analysis of the expenditure, confirming the fact that policy assessment is a crucial tool to improve the quality of the public expenditures. This paper presents an analysis of the budget of the Brazilian Ministry of Labor, revealing a growing unbalance: the amount of funds addressed to passive employment policies has strongly risen, while the amount addressed to active employment policies has significantly diminished. This scenario - which, at first glance, is not desirable - is even more concerning considering that the passive employment policies that have been implemented in Brazil do not reach the poorest. In this context, the article assesses the possibilities of directing part of the resources destined to finance passive policies to active employment policies.