The Implication of Health Human Capital Investment on Nigeria Economic Growth

The study assessed the impact of health care investment on Nigeria economic growth (1985-2019). The utilized annual time series data on selected variables; real gross domestic product (RGDP), public health expenditure (PEH), infant mortality rate (IMR), maternal mortality rate (MMR), malarial prevention rate (MPR) a proxy for morbidity rate, life expectancy rate (LFE) and labour force participation rate (LFP) were collected from the statistical Bulletin of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), world fact book and indexmundi. The data were checked for stationarity and ARDL bound cointegration test. As such, ARDL approach was utilized in the analysis of the data. Findings from the result showed that PEH, IMR, MMR and MPR exerts negative influence on economic growth in the short term, while LFE and LFP exerts positive influence on economic growth in the short term. Consequently, the result showed that in the long run, PEH exert positive influence, though insignificant. Whereas the effect of other variables IMR, MMR, MPR, LFE, and LFP exerts the same level of influence on economic growth as in the short run. The granger causality test revealed that unidirectional causality runs from PEH to RGDP and from RGDP to PEH. Diagnostic tests such as Normality, serial correlation tests, heteroskedasticity test were carried out on the model output to establish the robustness or otherwise of the models. It was found that the residuals were normally distributed and no serial correlation is present lending credence to the robustness of the work and its ability to make correct forecast. The study recommended that government and stakeholders in health sector should adopt appropriate mechanism that can guarantee and ensure adequate investment in health sector, because Nigeria health sector has the capacity to attract inflow of revenue through health tourism.