Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: The paper examines the link between life expectancy, public health spending and economic development in Nigeria for the period 1995 to 2017. Data used were life expectancy at birth, public health expenditure and the gross domestic product (GDP) sourced from the World Bank data. Situational analysis, Ordinary Least Square and the granger causality test techniques were employed. The situational analysis showed that the trend of GDP and expectancy were upward while health expenditure had an irregular trend. The OLS result showed that both government spending on health and life expectancy impacted positively and significant on GDP. The granger causality result showed a unidirectional relationship between life expectancy and GDP as causality runs from GDP to life expectancy. Bidirectional relationship exists between life expectancy and health care spending while there was no causality between health expenditure and GDP. The study therefore recommends that government should increase spending on health so as to improve the health status of individuals in terms of their life expectancy. This will in turn lead to an increase in productivity and help increase the country’s national income so as to prepare the nation for the attainment of sustainable development, come 2030.
Source: Social Sciences
Author: Joseph Afolabi Ibikunle
Institution: Ajayi Crowther University
Language: English
Topic: Global Health Care Issues
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2996901367