Social Infrastructure and Infant Mortality in Nigeria
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Given the prevalence of preventable infant mortality in Nigeria and its attendant consequences on future human capital development, this paper examines the relationship between social infrastructure and infant mortality in Nigeria from 1980 to 2017. The data for the study were collected from World Bank and World Health Organization data bank. The Johansen cointegration and error correction mechanism were adopted. Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test was used in testing the stationarity of the variables and the test result shows that they are all integrated at order one. The Johansen cointegration result buttressed the existence of long-run relationship among the variables. The Granger causality test result show that unidirectional causality exist between female secondary school enrolment (FSE) and infant mortality (IMR). The same is applicable to female tertiary institution enrolment (FRT) and infant mortality. The parsimonious result established that a negative relationship exist between social infrastructure and infant mortality. Thus, the paper recommends increase female education enrolment.