Public Expenditure and Economic Growth Nexus in Nigeria: A Time Series Analysis

This study examines the link between government spending and economic growth in Nigeria over the last three decades (1977-2006) using time series data to analyze the Ram (1986) model. Three variants of Ram (1986) model were developed-regressing Real GDP on Private investment, Human capital investment, Government investment and Consumption spending at absolute levels, regressing it as a share of real output and regressing the growth rate real output to the explanatory variable as share of real GDP, in other to capture the precise link between public investment spending and economic growth in Nigeria based on different levels.                  Empirical result showed that private and public investments have insignificant effect on economic growth during the period under review. The paper test for presence of stationary using Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) unit root test result reveals that all variables incorporated in the model were non-stationary at their levels. In an attempt to establish long-run relationship between public expenditure and economic growth, the result reveals that the variables are cointegrated at 5% and 10% critical level. With the use of error correction model to detect short run behaviour of the variables, the result shows that for any distortion in the short-run, the error term restore the relationship back to its original equilibrium by a unit. The paper main policy recommendation was that government spending should be channel in order to influence economic growth significantly and positively in Nigeria especially on education and infrastructural facilities. Keywords:Government spending, public infrastructure, economic growth, human capital investment, Government investment

Fiscal Policy Tools, Employment Generation and Sustainable Development in Nigeria

This study investigates the impact fiscal policy instruments on employment generation in Nigeria within the periods of 1980-2015. The study used the Augmented Dickey Fuller test to estimate the stationarity level, Engel Granger cointegration test for long-run relationship and ordinary least square for long-run estimates. The findings show that government spending and manufacturing output had negative impact on unemployment rate in Nigeria. It suggests that government spending and output from manufacturing industry reduce unemployment rate in Nigeria. However, tax revenue and agricultural output have direct impact on unemployment rate in Nigeria. The findings suggest that government expenditure has the potential of creating more jobs if they were expended on appropriate capital projects that are capable of facilitating employment creation and linking rural-urban centres smoothly and not encouraging migration. Manufacturing sector also has the prospect of alleviating jobless growth, likewise the agriculture sector if policies are targeted at raising their outputs

Human Capital Development and Macroeconomic Performance in Nigeria: An Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Approach

Developed nations continue to invest heavily in the development and training of their human resources. Huge budgetary allocations show it to education and health, yet Nigeria’s human capital development policy has only been effective on paper. This study examined the impact of human capital development on the macroeconomic performance of Nigeria. Using the autoregressive distributed lagged (ARDL) model, this study shows an insignificant negative relationship between human capital development and per capita GDP in the short run. The results also showed that only the tertiary enrolment rate significantly and positively improved per capita GDP within the period under review. The study concluded that the government’s efforts aimed at boosting human capital have been insufficient.JEL Classification: O47, J11, J2

Macroeconomic Variables, Demographic Factors and Current Account Balance in Nigeria: A Causal Relationship

This paper examines the effect of macroeconomic variables, demographic factors toward current account balance in Nigeria. It analyzed the connection between each of domestic savings and investment on current account balance by examining the role and direction of the selected demographic variables. The Toda-Yamamoto approach to causality was used to analyze the study. The result shows that the direction of causality was from both domestic saving and investment to current account balance. However, there is no reverse causation from the current account balance to domestic saving and investment. Thus, the selected demographic variables had no significant causation towards current account balance, investment, and domestic saving. The government needs to finance the desired investment through increased domestic saving without undue reliance on foreign resource

Infrastructural Development, Poverty Reduction and Economic Growth in Nigeria

In spite of massive revenue emanating from oil wealth, Nigeria has not been able to join the league of developed nations who have made infrastructural development and poverty reduction a frontline policy of their developmental process. This has led to critical thinking as to the exact growth implications of infrastructural development and poverty reduction approaches by the successive government of the federation. This study employed the vector auto-regressive approach to analyse the times series data on the relationship between infrastructural development, poverty reduction and output growth. We also used the impulse response function and variance decomposition to explain the responses of output to shocks within the model. The findings revealed that infrastructural development and poverty reduction positively influence economic growth in Nigeria. The impulse response functions showed that poverty reduction exhibited an inverse relationship with economic growth which means that at such periods, as economic growth is rising, poverty reduction was reducing. The study suggests that access and development of infrastructural facilities must be ensured to attain an accelerated economic growth regime, and subsequently put economic development underway. Also, poverty reduction mechanisms have to be expanded and sustained to achieve an egalitarian society that we desire

The Growth Effect Of External Sector In Nigeria: Nexus Of The Non-Oil Exports

This study investigates the growth effects of external sector in Nigeria taking into consideration the role played by non-oil export commodities within the periods, 1980-2016. The Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) was employed to analyse the dynamic long-run and short-run estimates. The stationarity level of the variables at first difference and cointegration are confirmed prior VECM estimation. The results show that the parameter of non-oil export was positive and significant at 10% in the long-run indicating that the contribution of non-oil export commodity on output growth is weak. However, the parameter was positive and significant in the short-run at the conventional level. This implies that government policy should be directed towards increasing non-oil export commodities of agriculture, manufacturing and service industries with the aim of boosting output growth in Nigeria. The environment should be made favourable for local producers and investors to ease production and the distribution channels of goods and services to final consumers. The findings also showed that output growth was directly influenced by investment, labour force and government expenditure while negatively affected by exchange rate

Unemployment, poverty and economic growth in Nigeria

Aim/purpose – This study investigates the links between unemployment, poverty and economic growth in Nigeria between the periods, 1985-2015. Design/methodology/approach – The paper employed the Augment Dickey Fuller test for unit root test, Johansen cointegration for cointegration, Ganger causality for causality test and Error Correction Model to establish the short-run links between the variables. Findings – The unit root test result revealed that the variables trend with time indicating their failure of integration at level. However, they were found to be stationary at first difference. The causality result revealed that there is no causal relationship between unemployment, poverty and growth in Nigeria. Similarly, the cointegration results showed that there is no long-run relationship between unemployment, poverty and eco-nomic growth in Nigeria. The short-run parameter estimates indicated that unemploy-ment has a negative and significant relationship with growth. However, the coefficient of the interaction between unemployment and poverty is positive and significant at the conventional level. Research implication/limitations – This study suggest that the output growth in the country will occur even if there are poor people as defined in absolute terms. The econ-omy will still expand even if the number of poor people increases. This is also the case in the short run, revealing that the economy has grown even though over the years, the numbers of poor people have increased. Thus, there is a need for stable macroeconomic policies that would ensure equal distribution of income so that the poor also benefits from the country’s growth. Originality/value/contribution – This study empirically examines the contribution of output growth towards employment generation and poverty reduction using data sets from the Central Bank of Nigeria, National Bureau of Statistics and World Bank

Human Capital Development and Macroeconomic Performance in Nigeria: An Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Approach

Negara maju terus berinvestasi besar-besaran dalam pengembangan dan pelatihan sumber daya manusia mereka. Alokasi anggaran besar menunjukkannya untuk pendidikan dan kesehatan, namun kebijakan pengembangan sumber daya manusia Nigeria hanya efektif di atas kertas. Studi ini meneliti dampak pengembangan sumber daya manusia pada kinerja ekonomi makro Nigeria. Menggunakan model autoregressive distributed lagged (ARDL), penelitian ini menunjukkan hubungan negatif yang tidak signifikan antara pengembangan sumber daya manusia dan PDB per kapita dalam jangka pendek. Hasilnya juga menunjukkan bahwa hanya angka partisipasi tersier yang secara signifikan dan positif meningkatkan PDB per kapita dalam periode yang dikaji. Studi ini menyimpulkan bahwa upaya pemerintah yang bertujuan untuk meningkatkan modal manusia tidak memadai. Klasifikasi JEL: O47, J11, J2

Does Trade in Medical Products Improve Health Outcomes in Nigeria? A Macro-Level Analysis

This study examined the relationship between trade in medical products and health outcomes in Nigeria. Annual time series data ranging from 1980 to 2016 was sourced from Business Monitor International (BMI, 2017), World Development Indicators (WDI, 2018) and National Bureau of Statistics (NBS, 2018) was used for the study. The study make used of Grossman health demand theory and health outcome was measured by three indicators which are infant mortality rate (less than one), infant mortality rate (less than five) and life expectancy. The independent variables used in the model include trade in medical product, health finance, growth rate of gross domestic product, sanitation facilities, urbanization, education and total fertility rate. From the estimated results of ECM, trade in medical product reduces both infant mortality rate less than one, infant mortality rate less than five and life expectancy but reduction in terms of infant mortality rate less than one and that of infant mortality rate less indicates that trade in medical product improve health outcomes while the reduction in terms of life expectancy shows that trade in medical product worsen health outcomes in Nigeria. Therefore, trade in medical product only improve infant mortality rate less than one and that of five but worsen life expectancy. Most of the medical product has their side effect at old age. Therefore, the study recommended that there should be more investment in trade in medical product in Nigeria in other for both infant mortality rate (less than one) and infant mortality rate (less than five) to be improve more significantly. The investment in trade in medical product should be on product that will also lead to increase in life expectancy and there should be a control on the number of children given birth to by individual household in Nigeria.&nbsp

The Effect of CO2 Emissions on Quality of Life in Anglophone Countries in West Africa

West African countries faced severe ecological hazards that affect the quality of life of the countries. An estimated seven million folks annually die from emission-related diseases in this region. Several health-harmful emission pollutants conjointly injury the climate and reducing emission pollution would save lives and facilitate slow the pace of near-term global climate change. The study used number of environmental factors that have a promising impact on Anglophone Countries in West Africa’s quality of life. The period covered in the research work was from 1990 to 2018 using panel quantile regression. The result obtained showed that the CO2 emission that can affect the quality of life of Anglophone countries in West Africa are CO2 emissions from gaseous fuel consumption, CO2 emissions from liquid fuel consumption, CO2 emissions from residential buildings and commercial and public services, CO2 emissions from solid fuel consumption, CO2 emissions from transport. Other control variables that have influence on quality of life were health expenditure, mortality rate and fertility rate. Therefore, the policy makers should implement policies (like energy conservation policies) that will control emission from gaseous fuel consumption, emissions from liquid fuel consumption, emissions from residential buildings and commercial and public services, emissions from solid fuel consumption and emissions from transport. Also, health sector has to be properly cater for by spending more on health and this can only increase the health outcomes and also the quality of life among the countries