Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Social Spending and Human Development in Selected West African Countries

Contents:

Author Info

  • iheoma, nonso
Registered author(s):

    Abstract

    The fundamental focus of economic development is the development of the human person, and over the years, there has been a common consensus among development economists on the efficacy of social services in achieving this objective. But, as is the case in advanced countries, is social spending capable of ensuring human development in developing countries? This study aims at providing answers to this question using Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal as case studies. The study adopts the fixed effect partial adjustment model and regresses the human development index on health and education spending across these countries for a period of 10 years (2000 – 2010) for each country, estimated using the ordinary least square. Results show that while health spending is significant in explaining human development in these countries both in the short and long runs, education spending is not. Therefore, it is recommended that in order to ensure the continued development of the human capital in these countries, increased funding of the health sector is necessary. Furthermore, ensuring adequate utilization of education sector allocation and enhancing the availability and accessibility of education services especially to the urban poor and rural dwellers will address the disconnect between education spending and human development.

    Download Info

    If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
    File URL: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/42139/
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no

    Bibliographic Info

    Paper provided by University Library of Munich, Germany in its series MPRA Paper with number 42139.

    as in new window
    Length:
    Date of creation: 12 Jun 2012
    Date of revision:
    Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:42139

    Contact details of provider:
    Postal: Schackstr. 4, D-80539 Munich, Germany
    Phone: +49-(0)89-2180-2219
    Fax: +49-(0)89-2180-3900
    Web page: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de
    More information through EDIRC

    Related research

    Keywords: human development; social spending; health; education;

    Find related papers by JEL classification:

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    References

    No references listed on IDEAS
    You can help add them by filling out this form.

    Citations

    Lists

    This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:42139

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Ekkehart Schlicht).

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

    If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.