Impact Of Public Health Expenditure On Household Consumption In Kenya

Abstract

Regardless of the fact that public health spending contributes significantly in determining the consumption levels among Kenyan households, it is still not clear by what extent does public health spending determine household consumption. The paper sort to establish the impact of public health expenditure on Household consumption in Kenya and it utilized a time series data set for the period “between” 1988-2017 for the following economic variables: household consumption, public health spending, education, population size and income. The Error Correction Model estimated the long run relationship between the variables in level form and findings revealed that in the long run Public health spending, income & education had a positive and statistical significant relationship with household consumption while population size exhibited a negative and statistical significant relationship with household consumption. These research outcomes affirm that an increase in the share public health spending will improve the welfare of Kenyans. Therefore the government should make an effort to conform with the global health commitments such as Abuja declaration whereby African government pledged to allocate at least 15 percent of the general government expenditure to the Health Sector