The role of health in the development of a nation cannot be overemphasized. While the concept of health status and the impact of public health expenditure have continued to generate scholarly debates, this study contributes to the debate with the incorporation of the role of the environment as a determinant of health status in Nigeria. With the objective of examining the impact of Public Health Expenditures and Pollution on Nigerians Health Status, annual secondary time series data spanning 37 years (1981-2017) collected from Central Bank of Nigeria statistical bulletin and World Development Indicator were analyzed using the ARDL technique. The result shows that Public Expenditures on Health has a positive and significant impact on health outcomes in Nigeria. Again, environmental pollution as proxied by per capita CO2 emission has a negative and significant effect on health outcome in the country. Economic growth rate was found to have positive impact but insignificant in enhancing life expectancy (proxy for health outcome) in Nigeria. On the basis of the empirical findings, it is recommended that the government should sustain the flow of resources to the health sector and improve on environmental practices through the formulation of new national environmental policies and better awareness campaign through the deployment of community health extension workers (CHEW).

The quest for rapid economic growth and development has pre-occupied the minds of researchers and policy makers most especially in less developed countries. This has resulted to empirical inquiry into the causes of growth in a sustainable term. This study therefore examines the impact of health status and labour productivity on economic growth in Nigeria. By utilizing annual time series data from 1981 to 2017, the study carried out ADF unit root test to ascertain the stationarity of the series. The result confirms that the series were stationary at levels and t first difference, hence, the adoption of ARDL bound test to Co-integration. The empirical estimates of the parameters of the model show that both health status and labour productivity have positive impacts on economic growth in Nigeria. This follows economic theory as expected. A further analysis of the significance of the estimates reveals that health status plays a significant role in Nigerian growth process. However, labour productivity fails to significantly impact on growth episodes in Nigeria. Other variable which stimulates economic growth in the country is gross fixed capital formation. The study therefore recommends a policy framework towards improvement in the quality of labour through adequate funding of education and re-tooling the educational system to enhance labour productivity for a more robust growth of the economy.