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This study investigates the causal linkages amongst public expenditure on health, health status and economic growth in Nigeria using the Toda-Yamamoto technique. The choice of the Toda-Yamamoto approach is predicated on its simplicity and the ability to overcome the shortcomings inherent in the conventional causality procedures by producing more robust results through the estimation of the augmented VAR that guarantees the asymptotic distribution of the Wald statistic. To this end, the study collected annual time series data from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Statistical bulletin and the World Development Indicator on public expenditure on health, life expectancy, infant mortality and real gross domestic product spanning 38 years from 1981 to 2018. The result of the study’s empirical analysis based on the co-integration test indicates that public health expenditure, health status and economic growth have long-run association. Further, the Toda-Yamamoto causality test result reveals the absence of causality between health expenditure and health status. Similarly, health status and economic growth are not causally interdependent. On the basis of the findings, the paper vehemently concludes that efforts to stimulate economic growth by targeting health outcomes improvement through public expenditure will be futile. As such, there is the need to develop better national health policy and programmes such as compulsory national health insurance that is capable of resolving the fundamental problems in the health sector. This would help integrate healthcare into the mainstream of the Nigerian economy.

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between air pollution and life expectancy considering the roles of institutional quality, agricultural output, foreign direct investment (FDI) and other socio-economic variables in Nigeria from 1981Q1 to 2019Q4.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed spliced quarterly data from annual series collected from the World Bank development indicators and Central Bank of Nigeria. The dynamic multivariate models were analysed using the vector error correction mechanism (VECM), variance decomposition and Granger causality techniques.FindingsThe VECM result indicated a statistically significant adverse effect of air pollution on life expectancy. However, institutional quality, gross domestic product per capita, agricultural output, government social expenditure and school enrolment rate ameliorate the adverse health effects of air pollution, while FDI had mixed effects on life expectancy at different significance levels and at varying lag lengths. The Granger causality result revealed a uni-directional causality from air pollution to life expectancy; bidirectional causal chain between agriculture, FDI, government social expenditure and life expectancy, while a uni-directional causal linkage run from life expectancy to income per head and from school enrolment to life expectancy respectively. However, there is no evidence of causation between institutional quality and life expectancy due to weak institutional quality, but foreign direct invest causes carbon emission in a uni-directional manner in line with pollution haven hypothesis.Research limitations/implicationsThe study's modelling is limited by not considering the resource curse variable in the model due to paucity of data. Nigeria is the biggest crude oil exporter in Africa and ranks 13th globally with daily output of about 2.4 m barrels. Thus, the negation of resource curse in air pollution–life expectancy nexus de-emphasises the effectiveness of rich resources on health and environment. Future studies could address this limitation by incorporating resource curse in environmental-health models for Nigeria.Practical implicationsIt is imperative for the country to adopt stringent anti-air pollution strategies that would establish a balance between FDI attraction and agricultural expansion to the benefits of her citizens' longevity. Also, education should be considered as a strategic action to enhance life expectancy through expansion in the provision, accessibility and affordability to improved school enrolment rate. The choice of quarterly time series over annual data helped to establish the current relationship between air pollution and life expectancy using efficient estimators.Originality/valueThe study contributes to literature by disaggregating yearly series into quarterly series, which has implications for the efficiency of the estimates, unlike earlier studies which ignored this fundamental process. The result of this study produced reliable policy direction for improvement in life expectancy in an emerging economy since quarterly estimates are more robust and reliable for forecasting than its yearly counterpart. The outcome of the study extended the original tenets of the Grossman's health stock theory using the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) and pollution haven hypotheses (PHH).

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).

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the interactive role of human capital development (HCD) in foreign aid-growth relations in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa countries from 1985–2019. Design/methodology/approach The study used panel data that cut across all countries in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa collected from The World Bank’s Development Indicators. The data were analysed using Bai and Ng panel unit root idiosyncratic cross-sectional tests and the system generalised method of moments (SGMM). Findings The study found that foreign aid and HCD have negative impacts on economic growth. Fortunately, the interaction of human capital with foreign aid reduces the extent to which foreign aid impedes economic growth. The presumption is that South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa economies had not reaped the potential growth effect of foreign aid inflows due to high illiteracy rates and weak social capacities. The peculiarity of these regions hinders the absorptive capacity to transform positive externality associated with foreign aid into sizeable economic prosperity. Practical implications It is imperative for South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa countries to not depend on foreign aid; instead, the strategic action by policymakers should be to developing sustainable social capacities with HCD as the centre-piece. Originality/value The highpoint of this study is its inter-regional approach and the interplay between human capital and foreign aid using the second generation panel unit root estimator and the SGMM approaches.