PUBLIC FAMILY SPENDING, LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY, INCOME INEQUALITY AND POVERTY GAP IN THE GROUP OF SEVEN COUNTRIES: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM PANEL DATA

Purpose. Comparable data on distribution of family income provide reference point for determining economic performance of any country, opportunity to assess effects of income inequality and poverty drivers that are either country- or region-specific. This study analysed the effectiveness of composite indices of public spending on family benefits, labour productivity, macroeconomic performance indicators and moderating factors in reducing income inequality and poverty gap in the Group of Seven (G7) countries from 1980 to 2019. Methodology. The study employed fixed effects Least Squares regression model in panel environment within the framework of empirical econometric methodologies. The composite indices comprised public spending on family benefits in cash and kind, unemployment allowance payments, tax on personal income, labour productivity, harmonised unemployment rate, consumer price index, real GDP growth rate, GDP per capita and per hour worked, fertility rate and trade. After graphical analysis of the data, order of integration was via unit root tests. Hausman test was carried out to choose between fixed and random effects models. Subsequently, parameters of the models were estimated and evaluated for significance at the 0.05 critical level. Findings. The results showed that percentage changes in income inequality and poverty gap indices differed for same percentage change in components of the composite indices. Some variable-specific percentage changes in income inequality and poverty gap were statistically significant, while others were not. However, the overall percentage changes was statistically significant. The paper concluded that while some specific effectiveness of the explanatory variables in reducing income inequality and poverty gap was not significant, their joint effectiveness significantly reduced poverty. Therefore, it is pertinent that family-oriented fiscal policy thrusts should be strengthened and sustained so as to continually reduce income inequality and, ultimately, narrow poverty gap in the countries. Limitations. The study considered the G7 countries for a period of 40 years. The limitations were that the variables considered to influence income inequality and poverty gap in the countries were both exhaustive. Also, the results were conditioned to the method used, and different methods can alternatively be used by other researchers and the results compared with this. Originality. The study is original research paper. It has neither been published in any other peer-reviewed journal not under consideration for publication by any other journal

Housing and Economic Growth Nexus in Nigeria: Data-Based Evidence

<p>Housing is considered as one of the cardinalmeasures of the state of an economy. This paperemployed data-based evidence to explore housingsector-economic growth relationship in Nigeriaduring 1980-2015. Choice variables were realestate business services (REBS), building constructioninvestments (BCI), property rights index(PRI) and human labor (L) engaged in the sector.Anchored on perceived interactions amongthe variables, articulated conceptual modelpreceded an analytic model modifi ed from theendogenous growth model of economic theory.Graphical and econometric techniques were employedto analyze the data sets on the variablesfor trends in time series values of the variables;and the effects of the housing sector variableson growth of the economy. The results showedthat housing services delivery had long-run relationshipand signifi cantly spurred growth of theeconomy. Further, housing services delivery andgrowth of the economy had high speed adjustmentcoeffi cient to long-run equilibrium growthpath under stable structural housing sector servicesdelivery and appropriate human labor mixparticipation. Therefore, the paper concludedthat housing services enhanced growth of theeconomy, and emphasized the need for appropriatehuman, capital and fi nancial policies forthe sector to engender sustainable growth anddevelopment of the Nigerian economy.</p

Accounting for the symmetric and asymmetric effects of FDI-growth nexus amidst financial crises, economic crises and COVID-19 pandemic: application of hidden co-integration

Abstract This study investigates the symmetric and asymmetric effects of FDI-growth nexus amidst financial crises, economic crises and COVID-19 pandemic s in Nigeria over the period 1983–2020. Having confirmed the long-run stable state among the variables, the symmetric estimates suggest that the FDI inflow/outflow is significantly linked with economic growth both in the long and short run, while the asymmetric model suggests that the parameter estimates have asymmetric effects on economic growth during the economic crisis in Nigeria. Specifically, the positive shocks in FDI inflow/outflow generate a significant reducing impact on economic growth, while negative shocks in FDI inflow/outflow generate a significant increasing effect on economic growth. Based on this findings, the study suggests that policy option would need to generate more economic activities that would improve net inflow/outflow and cushion the effect of future crisis