SETTING SUSTAINABLE STANDARDS FOR BIOFUEL PRODUCTION: LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL IMPERATIVES

Due to the extensive warnings and scientific predictions on the potential and emerging impacts of global climate change on human life and survival, policy makers across the world are beginning to embrace renewable energy options as ways to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. 1 As the United States President noted: But to truly transform our economy, protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy... We have known for decades that our survival depends on finding new sources of energy. Yet we import more oil today than ever before

Risk aversion and sustainable maize production in Nigeria: Some challenges and prospects for agricultural and economic development

This paper determines the degree or extent of farmer’s risk aversion that affects sustainable maize production in Northern Nigeria. Using a ridge regression analysis, a measure of risk aversion was derived for each individual farmer in a model of safety-first behaviour from a cross-sectional survey of 350 maize producers in northern Nigeria. The distribution of the degree of risk aversion shows a high skewness towards the risk averters (high risk farmers) and centered around 1.20, and standard deviation of 0.37. This distribution is then explained by a set of specific variables that characterize the farmers’ behaviour in the study area using a Tobit model. Susceptibility to risk was found to be highly premised on the socioeconomic factors (e.g. age of household head), farm specific variables (e.g. proportion of income from maize) and farmers’ attitudinal factors against risk (e.g. safety first level of probability of sale). These findings can be used to construct a framework of development programs for peasant farmers, which provide some challenging prospectsMaize, Nigeria, Risk aversion, Tobit model, Agricultural and Food Policy, Agricultural Finance, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, International Relations/Trade, Marketing, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Setting sustainable standards for biofuel production: Legal and institutional imperatives

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AN EXAMINATION OF CONTEMPORARY ISSUES RELATING TO MEDICAL LIABILITY

A member of any profession, it is supposed, possesses the skills, which her/his training asserts. As such, the person is liable for the exercise of duty within their trained capacity and culpable for negligence in its practice. In Nigeria, cases of negligence are under-reported; consequently marginal compensations are made out. If the standard of measure suitable to the Court is that the professional should act within the generally accepted practice, what becomes of the practitioner who is aware of better measures that the exercise of due care would demand? To what extent is the patient’s consent informed, valid and real? What of specific cases where a patient is not in the position to grant consent? Using the Bolam criteria, this paper argues that standard of care is relative. Arguably, a professional having specialised skill should exercise discernment concomitant with their speciality and better judgement than the general skill level. Furthermore, a doctor has the obligation to inform the patient of the risks, however small, otherwise (s) he dispossesses the patient of an informed choice and that such explanation must be within the limits of the practice among colleagues. Such cases may transcend from the domain of contract into torts. For example the promise of an operation different from the promise of success, lies within the field of tort. In specific cases where it is impossible for the patient to give consent, the doctor retains the duty to do what is in the best interest of the patient. The Bolam test is a valid threshold in determining whether the doctor has acted within prescribed and expected standards to avoid negligence and whether such doctor is liable or not for damages

Addressing the energy consumption-economic growth nexus: The Nigerian case

Energy is critical to the survival and expansion of any economy. In Nigeria, energy consumption has been skewed towards household use, and below thresholds for sector-driven growth. The article updates, in time and methodology, those studies highlighting the significance of energy use for economic growth, using the Bound test and the Auto Regression Distributed Lag (ARDL) to establish the long- and short-run relationships between disaggregated energy consumption and economic growth in Nigeria from 1990 to 2016. The variables considered are real GDP, energy consumption decomposed into electricity and petroleum consumption, labour and capital. The findings show that, in the short and long run, petroleum consumption and labour have a significant positive relationship with GDP. Furthermore, the causality results show that feedback causation between economic growth and energy consumption as well as labour exists, while one-way causation runs from labour to economic growth. The study recommends diversification of the power-generation portfolio in the country, as this will improve energy consumption. Also, full deregulating policies in the energy sector would encourage industrialization and move energy demand towards increasingly productive uses. Finally, a strong institutional framework is needed to ensure energy policies achieve their objectives and target

Revisiting the Effects of Workers’ Remittances on Economic Development in Nigeria

Poverty in Nigeria continues unabated despite huge inflow of remittances. Our result supports the argument that remittances can improve economic growth but can also worsen overall wellbeing. Reasons for this are, first, remittances beneficiaries in Nigeria are concentrated in the middle income class with high propensity to consume. Second, due to high propensity to consume, consumption triggers good prices in such a way as to worsen the purchasing power of the poor. Third, institutions are weak and the poor do not benefit from weak institution. Thus good quality institutions should be encouraged while ostentatious spending should be discouraged

Gillick v West Norfolk and Wisbech AHA: The Right of Adolescents to Make Medical Decisions and the Many Shades of Grey

In the Gillick case the lower court decision was challenged by the mother of a child below the age of 16, whose doctor had given advice on the use of contraceptives against the mother’s wish. The decision was overruled by the court of appeal and became a threshold for consent and confidentiality for adolescents, who by definition had reached the age of 16. The paper discusses how the Gillick decision has affected the right to make decisions especially as it relates to adolescents. In a counterfactual it examined the decisions of the courts pre-Gillick and post-Gillick to determine whether autonomy exists and the progress made since Gillick. The paper examines the ex-post cases of Re-R, Re-M and Re-W, which diverged from Gillick direction. For instance, in the case of Re-R, the court ruled that no minor with fluctuating competence could be considered competent, whereas using the Gillick criteria competence could be established. It concludes that, although Gillick opened doors on competence, it only moved us steps closer but did not solve the problem of adolescent autonomy; since in application, the court has often assumed its parens patriae jurisdiction, as in the case of Re-E. The court needs to give more autonomy to adolescents, as it is unfounded to consider that they are more conscious of the present and not the future. They can make their own decisions and therefore mistakes. Sometimes the lack of understanding on the part of the adolescents is premised on insufficient information from the physician or health care professional and this should be addressed.

ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTIVITY IN NIGERIA

Energy is critical to the survival and expansion of any economy, but in Nigeria, energy consumption has been skewed towards household use, and below thresholds for sector driven growth. The paper updates in time and methodology those studies highlighting the significance of energy use for economic growth, using the Bound test and the Auto regression Distributed Lag (ARDL) to establish the long and short run relationships between disaggregated energy consumption and economic growth in Nigeria from 1990 to 2016. The variables considered were real GDP, energy consumption decomposed into electricity and petroleum consumption, labor and capital. The findings showed that, in the short and long run, petroleum consumption and labour have a significant positive relationship with GDP. Furthermore, the causality results showed that feedback causation between economic growth and energy consumption as well as labour exists, while one-way causation runs from labour to economic growth. The expansion and diversification of the power-generation portfolio in the country would improve energy consumption towards better output. Also, policies to encourage industrialization would move energy demand towards increasingly productive uses

Corruption and Challenges of Sustainable Inclusive Growth in Nigeria

The paper examines Corruption and Challenges of Sustainable Inclusive Growth in Nigeria. The paper adopts the theory of two publics as its framework of analysis. The theory explains the prevalence of corruption between and among public servants in Nigeria, which affects the attainment of sustainable inclusive growth. Corruption in Nigeria is caused by lack of accountability, transparency and good governance; poor leadership; monopolization of power by government officials; the utilization of discretionary powers by politicians and bureaucrats over the formulation and implementation of the rules and regulations and allocations of projects. Using system equation ordered by variables the paper revealed an indirect link between corruption and poverty and a significant negative impact on the attainment of inclusive growth in Nigeria. The test of causality using Wald test also revealed that there is a unidirectional causality running from corruption to inclusive growth. The paper therefore, argues that corruption challenges the attainment of sustainable inclusive growth in the country both in the short run and long run. This is because it drains and cripples the available national income for productive activities; discourages savings habit and increases debt burden in the country; hinders the Nigerian state to allocate resources for distributive purposes among the constituent units thereby; intensifies level of inequality and abject poverty; generates infrastructural and social services decay; and a general decline in the living standard of the ordinary Nigerian citizens.Key Words: Corruption, inclusive growth, System equation, Nigeri

Electricity Consumption, Institutions and Economic Growth in Nigeria: What Does Evidence Say So Far?

This study applies bound test approach to VAR to investigate the long-run and short run relationship between institutional quality, electricity consumption and economic growth in Nigeria based on annual data for the period 1980-2011. In the first step, we examine the degree of integration between all the variables and find that the variables are mixture of order of integration. In the second step, we investigate the long-run relationship between institutions, electricity consumption and economic growth; the results based on the bounds testing procedure reveal that there exists co integration among the variables used in the model. In the third step, we estimate the long run and short run relationship and test for causality using ARDL and Wald test approach and find a positive direct relationship between institutions, electricity consumption and economic growth. The result of granger non causality test support the existence of both short run and long-run bidirectional relationship between GDP and electricity consumption and a unidirectional causality running from institutions to economic growth. Further, our analyses reveal that causation runs from institutions to electricity consumption and vice versa in both period. Implying policy makers should adopt policies that can ensure total overhauling of our institutions capable of  driving  investment in infrastructures as well as  reorientation of the individuals in term of altitudes, trust, respect for rule of law and accountability, thereby encourage long-term contract, lower risk of doing business and improve human capital that is necessary for growth. Key words: Institutions, Electricity consumption, Co integration, Growth, Granger causalit