FEMALE EDUCATION, HOUSEHOLD INCOME, AND INFANT MORTALITY IN NIGERIA
Yaji, Williams Nyijime and Garba, Dauda
Volume 6 Issue 3
Abstract
This study examines the effects of female education and household income on infant mortality in Nigeria, controlling for physician density and public health expenditure. Using annual data from 1980 to 2021 and an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) framework, the paper tests whether household socioeconomic conditions and health-system capacity jointly explain infant survival outcomes. The bounds test confirms a long-run relationship among the variables. The results show that household income, physician density, and public health expenditure significantly reduce infant mortality in the long run. Female education has a negative short-run effect but a positive long-run coefficient, suggesting that literacy gains may not improve infant survival unless they translate into practical maternal health knowledge and access to care. Granger causality results show bidirectional causality between infant mortality and both household income and physician density. The findings indicate that infant mortality in Nigeria is not driven by health financing alone, but by the interaction of household welfare, maternal capability, and healthcare access. The study recommends strengthening female health education, improving household welfare, expanding physician availability, and targeting health expenditure toward primary and neonatal care. Keywords: Female Education; Household Income; Infant Mortality; Physician Density; Public Health Expenditure; ARDL
Download Paper