Public Health Expenditure and Health Indicators on Productivity in Nigeria

Abstract

Health as a human capital affects productivity directly through its impact on labour productivity. The study employs econometric techniques to verify the time series properties and the relationship among public health expenditure, maternal mortality rate, prevalence rate, and productivity in Nigeria. The Dickey-Fuller Generalized Least Squares (DF-GLS) test was used to ascertain the order of integration of the time series. The empirical results showed that there exists a long-run relationship among the variables. Also, the findings revealed that the maternal mortality rate has a negative insignificant effect on productivity in the short run. The study thus recommends that further study should be carried out to ascertain the cause of the negative relationship between public health expenditure and productivity in Nigeria. The government should increase public health expenditure; improve facilities for maternal healthcare to increase productivity in Nigeria.