Education, Health Spending, and Sustainable Development in Nigeria : Empirical Analysis Using an ARDL Bounds Test Approach 

Human capital investment is vital to achieving sustainable development in an economy. As an important aspect of human capital investment, education, and health spending should be given priority in the sustainable development agenda of a developing country like Nigeria. This study examined the impact of government spending on education and health on sustainable development in Nigeria using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (ARDL) bounds test technique. Sustainable Society Index (SSI) was used as a measure of sustainable development. The findings provided significant evidence that government spending on education and health is vital to sustainable development in both the short- and long-run in Nigeria. Based on this, the study recommends for a legislative act that will increase budgetary allocations to the education and health sectors in Nigeria to 26% and 15% of the annual budget, respectively, in line with the UNESCO and AU recommended standards, subject to an upward review in every five years.