Nigeria has one of the highest infant mortality rates and low life expectancy when compared with other developing countries. In addition, there is significant inequality in the distribution of financial and human resources in the health sector and Nigeria’s expenditure in the health sector of 3.8% is grossly lower than 16% of GDP as recommended by the United Nations Development Programme. It therefore becomes very worrisome how Nigeria may react to the increasing demand for public healthcare expenditure following the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. The study thus assessed the determinants of public healthcare expenditure in Nigeria between 1970 and 2020 using an ARDL model and time series annual data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria. The result analyzed confirms the consumer price index, number of physicians and other medical personnel, per capita income, infant mortality rate and life expectancy at birth as the main determinants of public healthcare expenditure in Nigeria during the period of study. On that note, policy recommendations made were for the government to provide adequate healthcare services through outlining and devising suitable healthcare policies that will be beneficial to the citizenry, the need for increased investment in health and nutrition and to arrest corruption and penalize those who divert and embezzle public health fund.

Keywords: Determinants, Healthcare Expenditure, Nigeria, ARDL Model.

The paper examines the impact of fiscal deficits on Nigerian economy between 1981 and 2019, using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and Pairwise Granger causality techniques to achieve the objective of the study. The variables used in the model are gross domestic product (GDP), fiscal deficits (FDT), inflation rate (INFL), investment (INVT), government expenditure (GEXP), deficits servicing (DS), unemployment (UNEMP), interest rates (INTR) and net export (NEX).The results showed that there were shortrun and longrun significant impacts of fiscal deficits on economic growth in Nigeria. From the Pairwise Granger causality analysis, bidirectional causality was established between fiscal deficits and economic growth in Nigeria while unidirectional causality was established between GEXP and GDP, between GDP and UNEMP, between GEXP and FDT, between INVT and INTR and between UNEMP and GEXP. It is therefore recommended that Nigerian government should formulate a set of fiscal deficit (FDT) policy according to Keynes’ view to stabilize the economy as well as promoting the economic policy that will enhance sustainable economic growth in the country.

Keywords: Fiscal Deficits, Gross Domestic Product, Autoregressive Distributed Lag, Granger Causality.

The relationship between population growth and economic development has been a topic under debate for a long time. The relationship between population growth and economic development can be measured by looking at the impact of population growth on economic development and viceversa. The relationship between population and economic development has recently spawned a large number of empirical studies, with remarkably mixed result. While many studies argue that population growth impedes economic development, others contend that the economic effects of population are rather simulative and some maintain that the two variables are not related at all. So this paper tried to put some comparison between the variable in terms of graph, by taking four country Ethiopia, Uganda, Pakistan and China as example; when I come to my conclusion the impact of population growth on economic development is different in the varying economies. When in developed countries, population growth helped to increase the Gross National Product, in developing countries the reverse is the case. So that I support the view that population is not the real problem, since there is proper policy that can create opportunity for the growing population, the high population to become relevant. However if the concerned body if fail to manipulate especially with regards to Less Developed Countries it become treat and challenge for the economic development of that country and the also high population cannot foster the economy when the largest portion is poor. Moreover it may bring different problem like continuously increasing dependency ratio, increase migration, unemployment, tends to lower manland and manresource proportions, can also increase the problems of inequalities in income distribution and generally it create poverty.

Keywords: Population Growth, and Economic Development.

This paper implements a genetic algorithm of 20 input variables (technical indicators) outlined by the Bank of St. Louis Fed’s research department updated to include newly adopted technical indicators Ichimoku cloud. The research is tested over the 1980-2016 period and benchmarked on the S&P 500 Large Cap Index. The hypothesis is to see if investors may gain additional information from using technical indicators in their asset allocation strategy. The results show through stepwise regression that moving averages, and Ichimoku cloud indicators may convey information to investors although there may be additional macroeconomic information not picked up by the technical signals that should be included in the system of equations. The results show from 1980-2016 the genetic algorithm strategy produces total return of 3308.31 percent versus the S&P 500 1909.90 percent. The result is .16608 with pvalue of 0.000 for the Moving Average 3,12 and 0.24 for Ichimoku Cloud Indicator based on the 1,26 period. For Ichimoku Indicator 26,52 it is 0.000 and for 1,52 0.009. These are the significant factors in producing the returns from 1980-2016. The constant term has a negative test statistic. This means if all indicators were set to zero the strategy would have a negative return.

Keywords: Technical analysis, S&P 500, Ichimoku Cloud, Genetic Algorithm, Moving Averages
JEL Codes: G11, G12, G40

This study uses metaanalysis to investigate the FDI spillover effects Africa. FDI spillover studies in the existing empirical literature have shown mixed results which hamper decisionmaking by policymakers. There is only a limited available studies in this regard in Africa and this study intends to add to the ongoing debate. Previous studies have shown that among other factors, publication bias has made some authors to report only results that are consistent with theory. Data for this study were developed based on previously published FDI spillover studies through google search and other search engines. We use funnel asymmetry test (FAT) and precisioneffect test (PET) to carry out the metaanalysis by using mixedeffect multilevel and ordinary least squares techniques of analysis to correct for the withinstudy dependency and betweenstudy heterogeneity problems commonly associated with metaanalysis. We account for different study characteristics of the previous studies to examine the reason for the mixed findings and find that there is evidence of statistically significant FDI spillover effect in Africa even in the presence of publication bias. the reported effects in the existing literature suffer from positive publication bias. This means that studies that reported results with positive estimated coefficients were more likely to be accepted for publication. Based on our findings, we recommend that on the one hand, authors should try to report results dictated by the data instead according too much importance to theory. On the other hand, consumers of research findings such as policymakers should research findings with caution. More studies in this area are encouraged in Africa for a much broader understanding of the differences in the existing empirical FDI spillover literature. 

Keywords: Meta-analysis, FDI, Technology Spillovers, Publication bias, Africa.