Health Care Expenditure and Economic Growth in Nigeria
- April 9, 2018
- Posted by: RSIS
- Category: Economics
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume II, Issue III, March 2018 | ISSN 2454-6186
Health Care Expenditure and Economic Growth in Nigeria
UDEORAH, Sylvester Alor F.1, OBAYORI, Joseph Bidemi 2, ONUCHUKU, Okey3
1, 3 Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria
2Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria
Abstract: – The paper examined the impact of health care expenditure on economic growth in Nigeria for the period of 1980 to 2016. The data used in the study were sourced from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) statistical bulletin. The study used Real Gross Domestic Product (RGDP) as proxy for economic growth as the dependent variable; health care expenditure (HE) as the major independent variable while education expenditure (EE) as a check regressor to enhance the explanatory power of the model. The study used descriptive statistics and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) test as the estimation techniques of data analysis. The Kwiatkowski, Phillips, Schemidt and Shin, (KPSS) unit root test preceded the GMM test in order to establish the stationarity of the variables. The descriptive statistics result revealed that RGDP has an average of N31292.50billion; health care expenditure has an average of N10322.47billion while education expenditure has an average of N45895.95billion during the period of study. The GMM result revealed that the coefficient of health care expenditure with positive sign which conformed to economics theory is not statistically significant at 5% level. The coefficient of education expenditure conformed to economics theory (i.e. positive) and statistically significant at 5% level. The study concluded that health care expenditure had no significant impact on economic growth while education expenditure had positive significant impact on economic growth in Nigeria during the period of study. The study recommended that the government should redesign her policy toward health care expenditure in particular and human capital development in general and put in place machineries for implementing and monitoring this policy for effective implementation. This will make health care expenditure to significantly impact economic growth in Nigeria.
Key Words: Expenditure, Health, Education, RGDP, KPSS, GMM
