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Life Expectancy, Public Health Spending and Economic Growth in Nigeria

Received: 9 September 2019    Accepted: 25 September 2019    Published: 26 December 2019
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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.

Published in Social Sciences (Volume 8, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.ss.20190806.20
Page(s) 369-376
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Life Expectancy, Health Care Spending, Economic Development, Government, Granger Causality Test

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Joseph Afolabi Ibikunle. (2019). Life Expectancy, Public Health Spending and Economic Growth in Nigeria. Social Sciences, 8(6), 369-376. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20190806.20

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    ACS Style

    Joseph Afolabi Ibikunle. Life Expectancy, Public Health Spending and Economic Growth in Nigeria. Soc. Sci. 2019, 8(6), 369-376. doi: 10.11648/j.ss.20190806.20

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    AMA Style

    Joseph Afolabi Ibikunle. Life Expectancy, Public Health Spending and Economic Growth in Nigeria. Soc Sci. 2019;8(6):369-376. doi: 10.11648/j.ss.20190806.20

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ss.20190806.20,
      author = {Joseph Afolabi Ibikunle},
      title = {Life Expectancy, Public Health Spending and Economic Growth in Nigeria},
      journal = {Social Sciences},
      volume = {8},
      number = {6},
      pages = {369-376},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ss.20190806.20},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20190806.20},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ss.20190806.20},
      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.},
     year = {2019}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Life Expectancy, Public Health Spending and Economic Growth in Nigeria
    AU  - Joseph Afolabi Ibikunle
    Y1  - 2019/12/26
    PY  - 2019
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20190806.20
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ss.20190806.20
    T2  - Social Sciences
    JF  - Social Sciences
    JO  - Social Sciences
    SP  - 369
    EP  - 376
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2326-988X
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20190806.20
    AB  - 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.
    VL  - 8
    IS  - 6
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Economics, Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo, Nigeria

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