Effect of Disaggregated Government Expenditures on Human Development in Nigeria

Abstract:

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.