Life Expectancy, Public Health Spending and Economic Growth in Nigeria

Joseph Afolabi Ibikunle

doi: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.

Highlights

One of the most appealing topics in public health is the connection between life expectancy, health care expenditure and annual gross domestic product (GDP) rate
We investigated the impact on economic development of public health spending and life expectancy as well as the connection between them for the period from 1995 to 2017
It is disclosed from the study that spending on public health and life expectancy has a beneficial impact on economic development

Summary

Introduction

One of the most appealing topics in public health is the connection between life expectancy, health care expenditure and annual GDP rate. Health systems goals include efficiency, effectiveness, equity, and quality. To achieve this relies on a nation's health policy, spending on health, national income, and access to health facilities. The World Health Organization (WHO) ranks Nigeria 187th out of the 191 member countries based on its results in the health system. Some literature blamed this achievement on health expenditure, prices and incomes, while others believe that some low-income countries have improved health results based on political will [1,2,3]

Objectives

Results

Conclusion