Distributional impact of public expenditure on human development in Nigeria

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop and apply a distributional impact assessment methodology to empirically analyze distributional impact of public expenditure on human development using data from 20 states in Nigeria. For robustness of the analysis, expenditure on education, health, agriculture, rural development, energy, housing, environmental protection and portable water resources are employed as predictors of human development. The result reveals that expenditure on education, health, agriculture, rural development and water resources has positive marginal impact on human development. In contrast, the marginal impact of energy, housing and environmental protection is negative. Among the sectors, education, health, agriculture, rural development and water resources expenditure has positive marginal impact while energy, housing and environmental protection have decreasing marginal impact on human development.

Design/methodology/approach

Panel approach.

Findings

The result reveals that expenditure on education, health, agriculture, rural development and water resources has positive marginal impact on human development.

Originality/value

A panel approach is used to investigate whether expenditure on education, health, agriculture, rural development and water resources has positive marginal impact on human development.

Citation

Edeme, R.K., Nkalu, C.N. and Ifelunini, I.A. (2017), "Distributional impact of public expenditure on human development in Nigeria", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 44 No. 12, pp. 1683-1693. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-05-2016-0152