Determinants of Economic Growth Differential in Rural Nigeria

Increasing income inequality and poverty continue to be the most challenging economic problem facing most developing countries including Nigeria. It has been observed that inequality in Nigeria is mainly through income differential. Mean earnings also differ greatly across groups defined by occupation, gender, education, experience, and other observed traits. The paper explores the extent to which a set of factors determine income growth differential in rural Nigeria between 1996 and 2004 using the National Consumer Survey data of 1996 and 2003/2004 National Living Standard Survey dataset. The two periods have sample sizes of 11,577 and 22,000 respectively. Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition approach was used to estimate the contribution of selected factors to the growth differential between the two periods. From the decomposition results, the key determinants of growth for both periods respectively were: age of household head (0.011, 0.199); house unit type (0.038, 0.032); education status (0.129, 0.141); and weekly hours of work (0.183×10-4, 0.002). Others were Gender, (-0.117, -0.213); and household size (-0.044, -0.140). [Adigun Grace Toyin, Awoyemi Taiwo Timothy, Omonona Bolarin T. Determinants of Economic Growth Differential in Rural Nigeria. New York Science Journal 2011;4(4):50-58]. (ISSN: 1554-0200). http://www.sciencepub.net/newyork. Keywords: Growth, Inequality, Per Capita Expenditure, Rural Nigeria, Oaxaca-Blinder Decomposition

An Evaluation of Rural Electrification and Households' Poverty in Ikole Local Government Area, Ekiti State, Nigeria: An FGT Approach

The rural areas in Nigeria have witnessed intense neglect and inadequate rural infrastructural development. This is contrary to the backdrop experienced in emerging cities where the provision of rural infrastructure was critical for improving the quality of rural life and opening up the areas for development. This study evaluated the relevance of rural electrification on households' poverty using structured questionnaire and a multistage sampling procedure to obtain cross sectional data. A total of 114 rural households were randomly selected, out of which 60 had access to electricity and 54 did not. The Foster-Greer-Thorbecke technique was used to evaluate the poverty incidence among the households. The results revealed that the mean age of the respondents was 52years. The mean household size and farm size was 8 and 28.9 percent of the respondents had no formal education with majority engaging in farming as main occupation. The households in electrified communities spent more averagely, N4,017.90/Month on the alternative sources of energy than their counterpart in non-electrified communities who averagely spent N2,890.90/Month. The results further revealed that households in non-electrified communities were poorer than their counterpart in electrified communities. Therefore, rural electrification can actually curb poverty and improve standard of living in rural Nigerian areas. Keywords: Electrification, Households, Infrastructure, Poverty, Rural Nigeria    JEL Classifications: I32, O18, R

Welfare Distribution in Rural and Urban Centres in Nigeria: A Stochastic Dominance Approach

Policy makers are interested in knowing the welfare effect of the many development programmes implemented in rural centres in Nigeria. This study applied stochastic dominance approach to show whether the aggregate welfare in rural centres was better than in urban centres using the household survey data for Nigeria collected by the national Bureau of Statistics. The monetary approach of measuring welfare was adopted and consumption expenditure was chosen over household income following its practicability in a developing country context. Adjustments were also made so as to fit welfare distribution as much as possible. The main findings were that rural centres had better aggregate welfare only for the class of welfare function that is equity loving. For the class of welfare function that is equity and efficiency loving, aggregate welfare dominance of rural centres over urban centres was inconclusive. However, with further imposition of Pigou Dalton transfer condition using the generalized Lorenz curve, rural aggregate welfare showed dominance over urban aggregate welfare. This suggests that redistribution of incomes through rural development programmes may have much more effect on rural aggregate welfare