Income Inequality, Health Care Expenditure and Economic Performance in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examined the impact of income inequality and healthcare expenditure on economic performance in Nigeria over the period 1990-2020 using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) estimation technique. The findings reveal the existence of a positive and a statistically significant relationship between income inequality and economic performance as well as health care expenditure and economic performance in Nigeria. In addition, the results show that health care is a necessity rather than a luxury in Nigeria. The study recommends that government should implement programs and policies that will alleviate the inequality in income distribution as well as appropriate policies at the macroeconomic level targeted at public health expenditure to enhance economic performance