Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Human Development in Nigeria

This study empirically investigated the effect of government expenditure on human development in Nigeria from 1981 to 2019. Government expenditure is proxied with government capital and recurrent expenditure on health, government capital and recurrent expenditure on education and government capital and recurrent expenditure on other social and community services while human development is proxied with human development index. The study employed ex-post facto research design and secondary data were utilized. The Secondary data were obtained from Central Bank Statistical bulletin and United Nations development programme report of various years. The study tested for stationarity, and it was found that the variables are stationary at mixed order. Based on this, the study adopted Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model as the estimation technique. The study found that government capital and recurrent expenditure on health has weak and insignificant effect on human development. The study also revealed that government capital and recurrent expenditure on education has significant positive effect on human development in Nigeria. The study likewise revealed that government capital and recurrent expenditure on other social and community services has significant positive effect on human development in Nigeria. The study concluded that government expenditure through investment in education and other social and community services influence human capital development in Nigeria positively. Thus, the study recommended amongst others that the Nigeria government should increase funding of the education sector to meet education, scientific and cultural organization minimum requirement. Government should invest more on other social and community services.

The study assesses the impact of government general spending on human development in Nigeria from 2003 to 2017. The purpose is to determine the response of human development index (HDI) to recurrent and capital government expenditure. In order to achieve this objective, the multiple linear regression model linking the study variables was applied while Ordinary Lease Squares method was used to analyze the model. The results indicate that government’s capital expenditure and inflation have insignificant negative influence on HDI, corruption does not have any impact on HDI but government recurrent expenditure has strong and significant positive impact on HDI. The study concludes that resources on recurrent expenses should be reduced while more money should be invested in capital projects for human capital development in Nigeria.

Helminth elimination in the pursuit of sustainable development goals: a "worm index" for human development.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) call for an end to all poverty and marked improvements in health for all. The linkages of health to poverty reduction and to long-term economic growth have been shown to be much stronger than has been generally understood. The WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health elucidated the close connexions between conditions of poverty and maladies which include several non-communicable diseases (NCDs), associated with these conditions. Strong evidence links poverty, poor employment and working conditions (exposure to occupational risks), lack of education, and other social determinants to NCDs, creating a vicious cycle, whereby worsen poverty through their impact, while poverty results in rising rates of such diseases. At the same time, because of the magnitude of illness, disabilities and premature deaths they cause and the long-term care required, they reduce productivity and increase healthcare costs, thereby weakening national economic development. Decent work is now at the forefront of the new sustainable development agenda, which for the first time explicitly refers to full and productive employment and decent work for all as a means of achieving sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth (SDG 8), and include goals relating to protecting labour rights and promoting safe and secure working environments of all workers, including migrant workers, women workers, and those in precarious employment. The SDGs also include a number of additional targets and goals, which have implications for health safety and wellbeing (e.g. SDG3, 4, 5, 10 and 12). The SGDs recognise that inclusive and sustainable economic growth is not only linked to the number of economically active people and economic output, but also to the conditions in which they work. However, much still needs to be done to improve working conditions and promote decent work and, consequently, sustainable and inclusive growth.

Research that explicitly focuses on sustainable human development, an integrative approach that captures economic, social, and environmental dimensions remains limited. Most prior studies have examined human development through a narrow lens, often excluding the environmental sustainability component that is vital for intergenerational equity and long-term resilience. This study addresses this gap by employing the Sustainable Human Development Index (SHDI), thereby aligning the analysis with the broader objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Moreover, while existing literature on public debt has largely centered on external debt, this study shifts focus to domestic debt, which now constitutes a dominant share of Nigeria’s total public debt. Recognizing the structural distinctions between debt types, the analysis further disaggregates domestic debt into bank-based and nonbank-based components to assess their differentiated effects. Using quarterly data from 1996 to 2022 and the Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) model, the study explores both symmetric and asymmetric relationships between public debt, governance quality, and sustainable human development. The findings reveal that positive changes in domestic bank-based debt reduce sustainable human development, whereas negative changes improve it. Conversely, positive shocks to domestic nonbank-based debt enhance sustainable human development outcomes, while negative shocks have a detrimental effect. Governance quality significantly improves sustainable human development, and its interaction with nonbank-based debt both independently and jointly amplifies this positive effect. The study recommends strengthening governance institutions to enhance the developmental impact of public debt and promoting a strategic shift toward nonbank-based domestic borrowing, which has demonstrated a more consistent contribution to sustainable human development.

Building on the hypothesis that a country's governance quality is crucial for sustainable development, we examined the human development implications of good governance in Nigeria, focusing on the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Index (HDI). We measured good governance using key World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGIs), including government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption. Data for the variables were sourced from the World Bank and the UNDP Human Development Report. The datasets were analysed using the least squares estimation method, descriptive statistics, and pre-estimation and diagnostic tests. The findings revealed that government effectiveness has a positive, significant impact on HDI in the short term, suggesting that improving government effectiveness is associated with immediate improvements in human development. Similarly, the regulatory quality index has a significantly positive impact on HDI, indicating that improvements in regulatory quality are associated with potential rather than immediate gains in HDI. However, there is evidence of a long-term positive effect of the rule of law on HDI, suggesting that improvements in legal frameworks, judicial independence, contract enforcement, and property rights significantly enhance human development outcomes in Nigeria. Conversely, corruption control has a negative impact on HDI, highlighting the ineffectiveness of anti-corruption strategies in promoting human development outcomes in Nigeria. Given the findings, this study recommends, among other things, that the government should prioritise institutional reforms to improve the quality of public service delivery, particularly in health, education, and living standards, to foster human development in Nigeria.

Prospects and Challenges: Mozambique's Growth and Human Development Outlook to 2040

The article considers the impact of consumer spending, as well as investment in business on economic growth, economic development of enterprises and the formation of human capital. Since human capital is the main value and source of competitive advantage of enterprises, the paper outlines the state of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations for the world community in Ukraine. The study focuses exclusively on the goals of human capital deve-lopment, namely № 3 – ensuring a healthy lifestyle and promoting well-being for all at all ages, № 4 – providing a comprehensive and equitable quality education and promoting learning opportunities throughout life for all, № 5 – ensuring gender equality, empowering all women and girls, № 8 – promoting progressive, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all (macro level). Ukraine’s place in the international ranking of countries according to the integrated indicator of the United Nations, which quantifies the development of human capital – Human Development Index. During the period from 2015 to 2019, Ukraine strengthened its position by 1.4%. The paper analyzes the level of influence of the level of education on employment and, ultimately, on economic growth according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The importance of investments in human capital is substantiated. Areas in which enterprises invest for the development of human capital have been eradicated: health care (affects people’s qualityof life, its duration, as well as work efficiency), mental and cultural development (work-life balance) and multi-format training (micro level). The study provides examples of some training centers in the structure of Ukrainian enterprises in various fields (consulting, aircraft, energy, automotive, pneumatic automation), which allow not only to develop human capital, but also to bring economic benefits to enterprises and benefit society. The article formulates the importance of human capital development for society as a whole, which characterizes the meso level.

There are 17 goals to achieve sustainable development in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations. One of SDG that promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth is SDG number 8. Sustainable economic growth seeks to achieve goals that support the process of economic development. Inclusive growth is sought to support the process of economic growth and economic development to prevent future generations from suffering depletion of resources. The effort to achieve inclusive growth in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). ASEAN was formed as an integration of any counties as a result of globalization,. The integrated economies of ASEAN countries form economic liberalization, giving rise to economic openness. The manifestation of economic openness is trade openness and financial openness. The panel regression method is used to see the effect of economic openness and macroeconomic variables on economic growth as a proxy for inclusive growth. The results found that inflation and unemployment as macroeconomic variables had a significant negative effect on economic growth. It means to achieve the inclusive growth; the ASEAN countries should keep the inflation stable and low unemployment rate.

Recently, there has been increased calls for human capital development across the African economics. The role of human capital to economic growth and development cannot be overemphasized. Infrastructural development and efficient tax system are veritable tools for promoting human development. When human development is stunted, infrastructural development and tax revenue also shrink. This paper examined the inter-relationship and interdependency among tax revenue, infrastructure and human development in Nigeria for the period 1980- 2021. This paper adopted the simultaneous equation modeling approach and a system of equations where tax revenue, infrastructure and human development are taken to be exogenous. From the result, temporary 10 percent increase in value added tax revenue has higher effect on human capital development , real GDP and broad money supply. In contrast, permanent increase in value added tax revenue has higher effect on government spending on social and community services(including health and education) and inflation rate than the temporary 10 percent increase in value added tax revenue. Hence, to increase human capital development in Nigeria, temporary tax revenue shock is sufficient. The government should diversify its revenue base and expend more on health and education in addition to building a strong institutional framework to ensure the efficacy of government spending on both health and education. Keywords: Infrastructure, human capital, macroeconometric model, tax revenue, Nigeria JEL Codes: H54, J24, F41, H24 DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/13-6-04 Publication date: March 31 st 2023

Chapter 2 - Water, Human Development, Inclusive Growth, and Poverty Alleviation: International Perspectives

This study carefully assessed the impact of inflation and unemployment on poverty and the human development index in Nigeria using an annual dataset from 1991 to 2023. A vector autoregression (VAR) model was used for data analysis. The findings of the analysis indicate that the unit root test for the variables at first difference was stationary at the 5% critical value, the Johansen cointegration test for both trace and maximum eigenvalue had one cointegrating equation, meaning that there is a short- and long-term equilibrium relationship among the variables, while the optimal lag selection criteria showed a lag length of order one. Hence, these results met the requirements for using vector error correction (VEC) model estimation, given that the CUSUM test also indicates the model residual parameters' stability. Meanwhile, the impulse response functions revealed that a unit shock to inflation increases unemployment and poverty, as well as reduces government spending on human development through education and health. Also, the forecast variance decomposition showed the influence of the variability of inflation among variables, demonstrating its negative impact on various facets of the economy, leading to high rates of unemployment and poverty as it hampers human development. In view of this, the empirical study submits that researchers, policymakers, and development practitioners should design effective policies and programs that will help in reducing the effect of inflation and unemployment rates on poverty and the human development index through poverty reduction intervention programs aimed at fostering sustainable economic growth and human development in Nigeria.

The achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 8 on inclusive and sustainable economic growth, faces significant challenges across many countries. One of the main obstacles is corruption, which undermines economic efficiency, reduces investment, and weakens public trust. In addition, weak public oversight leads to a lack of accountability in the management of national budgets. These issues create a need to understand the extent to which the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) and public oversight influence the attainment of economic growth. This study aims to empirically analyze the impact of the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) and public oversight on the achievement of SDG 8. The study employs secondary data sourced from Transparency International, the Worldwide Governance Indicators, and the UNDP, covering 148 countries in 2021, and uses multiple linear regression with the Human Development Index (HDI) as a control variable. The results indicate that both CPI and public oversight have a positive and significant effect on the attainment of SDG 8, while HDI shows no significant influence. These findings underscore the importance of governance integrity and effective public oversight in supporting inclusive and sustainable economic growth. They also provide implications for governments and stakeholders in formulating more responsive development policies to accelerate the achievement of SDG 8.

This study investigates the heterogenous effects of financial inclusion, energy consumption, human development, and trade openness on economic growth in Saudi Arabia over 2004–2023. The quantile regression method is employed to account for distributional features in the growth process that are otherwise lost in standard mean-based estimators. The Johansen cointegration test confirms the presence of a long-run equilibrating relationship among the variables, with an argument for the application of Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) as a robustness check. Empirical results indicate that financial inclusion significantly and positively impacts economic growth in all quantiles and underscores its impact in both lower- and higher-growth settings. Human development, as estimated by the Human Development Index (HDI), is positively related to economic growth in quantiles 0.10, 0.25, 0.5, and 0.75, but in quantile 0.90 the effect becomes statistically insignificant, indicating diminishing returns for higher incomes. Trade openness has positive and significant relations with quantiles of 0.10, 0.25, and 0.75, whereas energy consumption maintains a negative but statistically insignificant relation with all quantiles. The FMOLS estimates are broadly consistent with the results of the quantile regression. The results highlight the importance of embracing differentiated, phase-specific policy actions in an effort to develop inclusive and sustainable economic growth in line with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030.

Inclusive growth (IG) aims to create decent work and economic opportunities for all, including marginalized populations, which aligns with the SDG-8 objective of promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth. Many studies measure IG through a single dimension, overlooking its multidimensional economic, social, health, and sustainability aspects. This study contributes by constructing a multidimensional IG index and using the four dimensions and 15 indicators, which cover all the aspects of IG. Moreover, the study investigates the determinants of IG with a particular focus on foreign remittances and institutional quality in Pakistan from 1996 to 2021. The bootstrap auto regressive distributive lag (BARDL), fully modified ordinary least-squares and dynamic ordinary least-squares techniques are employed for estimating the results. The long-run estimates reveal that remittances, institutional quality, trade openness and financial development showed positive effects on IG. While inflation, population growth and unemployment exert a negative impact on IG. Moreover, BARDL short-run estimates reveal that remittances, institutional quality and financial development have a positive effect on IG. In contrast, population growth and trade openness have a negative impact on IG. The policy advice is that the government develop strategies to optimize the inflow of international remittances and enhance the institutional quality to promote the IG in Pakistan.