The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and human capital: the case of Azerbaijan
International Journal of Social Economics
ISSN: 0306-8293
Article publication date: 19 October 2023
Issue publication date: 19 April 2024
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to relate investments in human capital to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), and examine the spending levels necessary to achieve high performance in related SDG sectors for Azerbaijan.
Design/methodology/approach
Employing data from the World Bank, the empirical approach undertaken in this study relies on peer analysis by examining spending levels for nations exhibiting similar income levels and geographical proximity to Azerbaijan.
Findings
This study estimates that total spending in education would need to increase by 0.4 percentage points of GDP by 2030, while total spending in health would need to increase by 5.9 percentage points of GDP by 2030 for Azerbaijan.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature by conducting an empirical analysis in which other nations can emulate in measuring their relative progress on human capital investments and related UN SDGs.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-02-2023-0137
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank discussants at the Azerbaijan State University of Economics and Khazar University for useful comments and discussions. The author is grateful for the research grant provided by the Fulbright US Scholar program. The author is grateful for useful comments and suggestions provided by the Associate Editor and the anonymous reviewers.
Citation
Sabbaghi, O. (2024), "The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and human capital: the case of Azerbaijan", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 51 No. 5, pp. 655-668. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-02-2023-0137
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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