Implication of Government Health Expenditure for Human Capital Development in Nigeria
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
The relationship between government health expenditure and human capital development has been widely discussed. It is a known fact that the more the health sector is funded, the more healthy people would be and this would enable them to invest in themselves and increase human capital. However, the health sector’s funding in Nigeria is low and has not helped to improve the development of human capital. It is for this reason that this study examined the impact of government health expenditure on human capital development spanning 1999 to 2023. The data for the annual time series were obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin 2023, and World Development Indicator 2023. The study adopted the vector error correction model (VECM) as an appropriate method of analysis. The results however found that government health expenditure and out-of-pocket expenditure have positive and significant impact on human capital development. Similarly, physician per capita and inflation rate are insignificant and negative with human capital development, meaning these two variables cause decline in human capital development during the period covered in the study. The results of the analysis made this study to recommend that there is the need for the government to increase health sector’s funding to aid the building of state-of-the-art health facilities that would help the development of human capital in Nigeria.
Downloads
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors hold the copyright of all published articles except otherwise stated.
References
Adelowokan, O. A. (2012). Growth effect of education and health expenditure in Nigeria: Critical issues and strategies for enhancing the use by the rural communities. Journal of Public Health and Epidemiology, 4(1), 5-13.
Adeshina, T., Alaje, C., & Idaeho, R. (2020). Infrastructural development in Nigeria: Challenges for private sector participation and the way forward. htpps://www.jacksonettiandedu.com
African Development Bank Group (2018). Africa Infrastructure Development Index 2018. https://www.afdb.org
Aluko, Y.A., & Aluko, O. (2012). Human capital development; Nigeria’s greatest challenge. Journal of Management Policy and Practice, 13(1), 162-177.
Aranda, P. (2010). The Determinants of Health and the Differences in Healthcare Expenditures among Countries. Journal of Health Economics, 8(5), 103-118.
Bassey, G. E., Ekong, U. M., & Ekpenyong, B. E. (2022). Government Expenditure and Human Capital Development in Nigeria. Advances in Social Sciences and Management, 1(1), 1- 21.
Becker, G.S. (1964). Human capital: A theoretical and empirical analysis with special reference to education. Colombia University Press.
Ehimare, O. A., Ogaga- Oghene, J. O., Obansiagbon E. I., & Okorie, U. E., (2014). The Nigerian government expenditure on human capital development. An efficiency analysis. European journal of business and social science, 3(7), 1-13.
Erasmus, E. G. (2021). Public Expenditure and Human Capital Development in Nigeria. Journal of Accounting and Financial Management, 7(2), 26-43
Ugochukwu, P. I., Uzonwanne, M. C., Nwokoye, E. S., & Eze, E. E. (2023). Impact of government expenditure on human capital development in Nigeria. Journal of Economic Studies, 20(1), 153-171.
Kurt, S. (2015). Government health expenditures and economic growth: A Feder-Ram approach for the case of Turkey. International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, 5(2), 441-447.
Maduka, A. C., Madichie, C. V., & Ekesiobi, C. S. (2016). Health care expenditure, health outcomes and economic growth nexus in Nigeria: A Toda-Yamamoto causality approach. Unified Journals of Economics and International Finance, 2(1), 001-010.
Muhammed, S., Maureen, O. C., & Itodo, I. C. (2022). Government Expenditure on Human Capital Development and Its Impact on Economic Growth in Nigeria. Indiana Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 3(2), 56-61.
Nwokoye, E.S., Ogbonnaya, I.O., Ama, A.U. (2017). Does government human capital spending contribute to human capital development? – Evidence from Nigeria. International Journal of Sciences and Research, 73(8), 135-149.
Okafor, C. N., Ogbonna, K. S., & Okeke, C. I. (2017). Effect of government expenditure on human capital development in Nigeria. International Journal of Banking and Finance Research, 3(2), 1-14.
Oluwatobi, S. O., & Ogunrinola, I. O. (2011). Government expenditure on human capital development: Implications for economic growth in Nigeria. Journal of sustainable development, 4(3), 72.
Railaite, R., & Ciutene, R. (2020). The impact of public health expenditure on health component of human capital. Inzinerine Ekonomika-Engineering Economics, 31(3), 371-379.
Shafuda, C. P., & De, U. K. (2020). Government expenditure on human capital and growth in Namibia: a time series analysis. Journal of Economic Structures, 9, 1-14.
United Nations Development Programme (2015). Overview of human development report 2015: Work for human development. https://www.undp.org
World Bank (2023). World Development Indicators. https://www.worldbank.org/
World Health Organization (2023). Health expenditure: Nutrition landscape information system. www.who.int/data/nutrition/en/
Yang, X. (2020). Health expenditure, human capital, and economic growth: an empirical study of developing countries. International journal of health economics and management, 20(2), 163-176.