FISCAL POLICY MANAGEMENT AND PRIVATE INVESTMENT IN NIGERIA: CROWDING-OUT OR CROWDING-IN EFFECT?

The Nigerian government over the years embarked on diverse macroeconomic policy options to tinker the economy on the path of growth and development. Amongst the policy options readily employed is that of fiscal policy. Despite the lofty place of fiscal policy in the management of the Nigerian economy, the economy is yet to come on the path of sound growth and development. The intent of fiscal management is essentially to stimulate economic and social development by pursuing a policy stance that ensures a sense of balance between taxation, expenditure and borrowing that is consistent with sustainable growth. However, the extent to which fiscal management engenders private investment continues to attract theoretical and empirical debate especially in developing countries like Nigeria. In light of this, the present study fills the gap by examining the relationship between fiscal management and private investment in Nigeria between 1987 and 2015. The study employed ex-post facto research design. Secondary time series data were used for the study and these were sourced from CBN statistical bulletin and World Development Indicators, 2015. The data collected were analyzed using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag with inferences drawn at 5% significance level. The result of the relationship between fiscal management and private investment in Nigeria showed that inflation, capital expenditure, indirect tax and non-tax revenue had positive and significant effects on private investment (β=0.02, t=19.04; β=0.59, t=40.13; β=1.70, t=17.07; β=1.05, t=22.03 respectively) in Nigeria, while domestic credit to private sector had negative but significant effect on private investment (β = -0.09, t = -17.26) in Nigeria within the period. The study concluded that a crowding-in relationship exists between capital expenditure and private investment, while indirect tax revenue has significant and non-distortionary relationship with private investment. The study therefore recommends more public investment in capital projects and that the tax system should generally be made favorable towards private sector investment

Testing Wagner’s Law in Nigeria in the Short and Long-run

This study tests Wagner’s law in Nigeria in both the short and long-run using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) technique of estimation and controlling for structural breaks between the periods 1981-2016. Results showed that both in the short and long-run, evidence pointed to a negative but insignificant relationship between government expenditure and economic growth, with a larger negative effect in the long-run. The study controlled for oil export earnings, which was found to positively and significantly influence government spending. It was therefore recommended that the economy be diversified into more labour intensive sectors so as to increase output per worker

Development Aid and Human Capital Development in Nigeria: A Sector Level-Analysis

Developing countries are generally faced with financial gap and budget constraints, and as such are dependent on aids to meet basic social and economic responsibilities. However, there are increasing concerns regarding the effectiveness of aid in developing countries, owing to worsening social and economic outcomes despite the huge amount of aid received from donor countries and institutions. This study therefore examines the effects of sector specific aid such as: health aid and education aid on life expectancy and primary school enrolment rate respectively in Nigeria, controlling for the influence of government expenditures on health and education. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model was adopted with annual data from 1981 to 2017. Findings revealed that health aid is beneficial as it significantly increases life expectancy by about 0.03%. Recurrent expenditure complemented health aid by increasing life expectancy by 0.03%. However, education aid is detrimental to primary school enrolment as it reduces the rate by 0.07%. Thus, it is concluded that education aid have not had the desired impact on education in Nigeria

Human Capital Development: A Catalyst for Achieving SDGs in Nigeria

There is no gainsaying in the fact that one of the objectives of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to attain poverty hitch-free by 2030. However, the continuous increase in poverty level has generated a lot of debates among policymakers, scholars and economists while government have also been continuously formulating different policies to avert this ugly situation. Various studies have documented the contributions of human capital development to poverty alleviation in Nigeria with special reference to MDGs and their results might not be transmitted to achieving the SDGs in Nigeria. This study therefore addresses this issue. The paper examines the impact of human capital development on poverty alleviation in Nigeria over the last two and half decades (1990-2015). The results obtained shall be used to project into the future as to whether investments in human capital expenditure has potential to achieve the objectives of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The study adopts a log-linear regression model formulated sequentially from the Solow’s neo-classical growth theory and standard Cobb-Douglas production function. The prevalence of poverty rate as a percentage of total population was regressed on unemployment rate, real government expenditures on education and health. The result of the estimated model reveals that real government expenditure on education has a significant effect on the prevalence of poverty in Nigeria. However, real government expenditure on health and unemployment rate both have negative but insignificant inelastic effects on the prevalence of poverty rate in Nigeria during the period under review. On this basis, the paper therefore suggests that government should invest more in education and facilitate the integration of vocational training programmes and courses as part of academic curriculum in schools at all levels. Also, government should increase investment in the health sector to ensure improvement and access to quality health facilities in the country, if human capital investment should catalyze SDGs achievement

Human Capital Development: A Catalyst for Achieving Sdgs in Nigeria

There is no gainsaying in the fact that one of the objectives of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to attain poverty hitch-free by 2030. However, the continuous increase in poverty level has generated a lot of debates among policymakers, scholars and economists while government have also been continuously formulating different policies to avert this ugly situation. Various studies have documented the contributions of human capital development to poverty alleviation in Nigeria with special reference to MDGs and their results might not be transmitted to achieving the SDGs in Nigeria. This study therefore addresses this issue. The paper examines the impact of human capital development on poverty alleviation in Nigeria over the last two and half decades (1990-2017). The results obtained shall be used to project into the future as to whether investments in human capital expenditure has potential to achieve the objectives of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The study adopts a log-linear regression model formulated sequentially from the Solow’s neo-classical growth theory and standard Cobb-Douglas production function. The prevalence of poverty rate as a percentage of total population was regressed on unemployment rate, real government expenditures on education and health. The result of the estimated model reveals that real government expenditure on education and unemployment rate both have significant effect on the prevalence of poverty in Nigeria. However, real government expenditure on health has negative but insignificant inelastic effect on the prevalence of poverty rate in Nigeria during the period under review. On this basis, the paper therefore suggests that government should invest more in education and facilitate the integration of vocational training programmes and courses as part of academic curriculum in schools at all levels. Also, government should increase investment in the health sector to ensure improvement and access to quality health facilities in the country, if human capital investment should catalyze SDGs achievement