Macro-economic variables and mortality rate nexus: focus on Nigeria

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of critical macroeconomic drivers like economic growth (gross domestic product (GDP)/capita), inflation and population size on the mortality rate of Nigeria. The general lockdown imposed by the government to curb the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had so many effects like loss of jobs, insecurity, businesses collapsing, salary cuts, unemployment and increased prices of commodities in the market.Design/methodology/approachThe paper focused on secondary data for the period 1991–2019 for GDP/capita, inflation, population size and mortality rate which were obtained from World Development Indicators (WDI). Time series analysis tests like augmented Dickey–Fuller (ADF), Bounds co-integration and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) were used to determine the stationarity conditions of the variables, co-integration presence among the variables and to determine the short-run and long-run relationships between the endogenous and exogenous variables.FindingsThe study shows that the variables are stationary at different orders i.e. I (0) and I (1) and the presence of co-integration among the variables. There exists a positive relationship between GDP/capita and mortality rate on the short-run which means increase in GDP/capita does not reduce the mortality rate in the country, there is also a positive short-run relationship between inflation and mortality rate but there are no long-run relationships among the variables.Originality/valueThe paper clearly examines the impact of GDP/capita, inflation and population growth on mortality rate in Nigeria.

Relationship between Public Debt and Exports in Nigeria: A Granger Causality and Threshold Analysis Approach

“…Even with thorough fiscal policies, there is still a need to strategize on effective debt management that will enhance growth. Though Africa's growth looks promising, the real interest looks to rise in the future while the difference in interest to growth could witness future shocks (Megersa, 2015;Adeosun, Gbadamosi & Odior, 2022). Despite this future challenge, Africa's access to international capital markets creates room for general growth through sustainable borrowing only if the funds are effectively and efficiently used for growthenhancing expenditure (Ncube & Brixiova, 2015).…”