PUBLIC HEALTH EXPENDITURE SHOCKS AND UNDER-FIVE MALARIA MORTALITY IN NIGERIA BETWEEN 1990 – 2017

Abstract

This paper investigated whether if under-five malaria mortality responds significantly to public health expenditures shocks in Nigeria. Using times series data from 1990- 2017, the paper employed modified Vector autoregressive model (VAR). To determine how under-five mortality responds to changes in public health expenditure. To properly capture the impact of health expenditure shocks on under-five mortality, the public health expenditure was decomposed in to capital and recurrent expenditure. Findings from the study reveals that public health expenditure does not have significant impact on under-five mortality, however, when the public health expenditure was disaggregated in to capital and recurrent expenditure, capital expenditure was found to have more significant influence on under-five mortality than recurrent expenditure. Other findings revealed that positive household’s behavior is capable of reducing under-five malaria mortality. The study therefore recommends more allocation of resources to capital health expenditure such as purchase of drugs, diagnostic equipments and ITNs should be prioritized to reduce under-five malaria mortality in Nigeria.