Government General Spending and Human Development: A Case Study of Nigeria

Abstract

The study assesses the impact of government general spending on human development in Nigeria from 2003 to 2017. The purpose is to determine the response of human development index (HDI) to recurrent and capital government expenditure. In order to achieve this objective, the multiple linear regression model linking the study variables was applied while Ordinary Lease Squares method was used to analyze the model. The results indicate that government’s capital expenditure and inflation have insignificant negative influence on HDI, corruption does not have any impact on HDI but government recurrent expenditure has strong and significant positive impact on HDI. The study concludes that resources on recurrent expenses should be reduced while more money should be invested in capital projects for human capital development in Nigeria.