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Governments of developing countries typically spend between 15 and 30 percent of GDP. Hence, small changes in the efficiency of public spending could have a major impact on GDP and on the attainment of the development's objectives. This paper presents a framework where data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to assess the efficiency of expenditure in education and health sectors. More specifically, this paper assesses efficiency and seeks to establish a link between difference in efficiency level across countries and policy conditions. The data are used for a sample of member states of organization of the Islamic conference (OIC) over the 2000-20005 period. The findings show that under 5 year old mortality rates, malnourishment prevalence and immunization rates are the main determinants of deficiency in health sector of sample countries. Moreover, enrolment ratio, more specifically in secondary school, is the major factor that affects public spending efficiency in the education sector. In addition, results show that because of international aid programs, on average, countries in Africa are more efficient than those in Asia and Middle East.

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Considering changes in economic conditions and global priorities in the last decade, development objectives such as poverty reduction and income distribution were typically cast in terms of economic growth. Therefore, poverty reduction through rural development was at the center of government development plan. The objective of this study is to analyze the impact of government spending on the rural economic development. The development indicators included in the model comprise agricultural production, non-farm employment and poverty reduction. To this end, the elasticity of the above indicators is estimated with respect to rural infrastructures such as education, transportation, telecommunication and electricity capacity and then linkage between rural infrastructures and government spending are identified. A system of simultaneous equations approach is used to model and estimate the equations using the data over the period 1981-2005. Results of estimate indicate that government spending have positive and significant impact on the poverty reduction and non-farm employment.

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 This study was conducted to determine whether Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) [ROOTS-novozymes endo-mycorrhiza fungus (Glomus spp.)] increase salt stress tolerance. The effects of mycorrhiza inoculation and salt on root and stem development, mineral nutrition, enzyme activity and lipid peroxidation levels in pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) plant was investigated. These effects were explored in pepper plants grown under greenhouse conditions in a randomized block design. Four different doses of salt (0, 50, 100 and 150 mM NaCl) were applied to the soil-filled pots, in addition to two different doses of mycorrhiza (0 and 100 spore mycorrhiza plant^-1). It was found that the root and stem dry weights of pepper plants were greatly reduced in the non-mycorrhiza treatments, whereas the presence of mycorrhiza ameliorated these negative effects. N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu contents of AMF treated pepper were higher than non-mycorrhizal plants. Owing to the presence of AMF colonization, nutrient uptake was increased and, consequently, the nutrient contents of stem and root tissues of mycorrhizal inoculated plants were enhanced as well. On the other hand, the root and stem enzyme activity of plants increased with salinity. AMF inoculation decreased SOD, CAT, POD and AxPOD enzymes of plant and the MDA and H₂O₂ contents, indicating lower oxidative damage in the inoculated plants. Our results showed that AMF can contribute to protect plants against salinity by alleviating the salt induced oxidative stress and arranging the ion balance in plant via increasing nutrient uptake in saline soils.