Health care expenditure has been low over the years in developing regions of the world. A majority of countries in these regions, especially sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), rely on donor grants and loans to finance health care. Such expenditures are not only unsustainable but also inadequate considering the enormous health care burden in the region. The objectives of this study are to determine the effect of health care expenditure on population health status and to examine the effect by public and private expenditure sources.

This study investigated the key monetary policy determinants of economic recovery, confirmed the optimum monetary policy target, and assessed the moderating role of fiscal policy in achieving economic growth in Nigeria. A plucking model of Friedman was estimated with Markov-switching, while threshold regression techniques were employed to confirm the monetary policy rate that can ensure economic recovery. Quarterly data, sourced from the National Bureau of Statistics and the Central Bank of Nigeria, between 2010:Q1 and 2019:Q1 were utilised. The results showed a significant asymmetry in the growth cycles with both monetary and fiscal policy found to be pro-cyclical, while increase in reserves in the regime of slow economic growth was not found to be growth supportive. The threshold analyses show that the Treasury Bill rate is pro-economic growth when monetary policy rate is at least 7.8%. While the Treasury Bill is a better monetary instrument that can deliver improved economic growth in Nigeria, the study recommends pro-cyclical policy coordination between monetary and fiscal policy to achieve economic recovery in Nigeria.

This study assesses gender gap in agricultural productivity across selected major crops grown by Nigerian farmers including cassava, yam, maize, guinea corn, bean and millet. The data for the study is sourced from the Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture for the year 2012/2013. The pairwise mean comparisons was applied to determine the extent of gender gap in agricultural productivity, inputs access and other variables; while non-parametric quantile regression technique was employed to assess the relationship between input use and gender gaps in farm outputs. The key finding is that gender gaps in farm output is low with quantity harvested and harvest sales of male managed plots marginally higher than female managed plots by 0.22% and 6.24%, respectively. The gender productivity gaps vary across selected crops and it is more pronounced in cassava, yam and maize production, while it is mild in other crops. The gender farm productivity gaps are traceable to longer farming experience in favour of men and labour market imperfection which is biased against women. Hence, labour market imperfections against women need to be addressed. This requires a formalized farming system which is presently lacking in Nigeria.

Determinants of Agricultural Exports in Oil Exporting Economy: Empirical Evidence from Nigeria

The study investigated the impact of climate change on yields of leading food crops in Nigeria and assessed the transmission channels of climate shocks to welfare. Long-run causality test, Markov-switching regression and Structural Vector Autoregressive (SVAR) model were used. Long-run causality between climate change and crop yields was not rejected. A rise in temperature by 1% reduces crop yields by -0.12% in the regime of high yield while 1% increase in rainfall increases yields by 0.21% and 0.26%, respectively in high and low yield period. Shocks to welfare is traceable to climate change via crop yields and food prices effect.