Public Investment in the Social Sector and Employment Generation in Nigeria, 1980-2016

Article No.: 122617182 DOI: 10.15580/GJSS.2018.1.122617182 The objective of this paper is to empirically examine the effect of public investment in the social sector on employment generation in Nigeria between 1980 and 2016. Time series data were sourced from secondary sources on unemployment rate (UNE) a proxy for employment generation, Government Expenditure on Education (EDU), Government expenditure on Health (HTH) and Government on Other Social and Community Services (COM). The data sets were analyzed based on the Dynamic OLS proposed by Stock-Watson (1993) technique of analysis to estimate the model. The result of the analysis reveals that Government Expenditure on Education (EDU) is rightly signed and is statistically significant while Government Expenditure on Health (HTH) and Government Expenditure on Other Social and Community services (COM) were wrongly signed and are statistically significant at 5 percent level. This implies that Government Expenditure on Health (HTH) and Government Expenditure on Other Social and Community services (COM) have not generated employment in Nigeria within the period under review. Based on these findings, the study recommends that government should encourage the education and health sectors through increased funding, as well as ensuring that the resources are properly managed and used for the development of education and health services. Lastly, government should increase its funding of anti-graft or anti-corruption agencies like the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) in order to arrest and penalize those who divert and embezzle public funds. Submitted: 26/12/2017 Accepted: 04/01/2018 Published: 16/01/2018