Trade openness is believed to stimulate economic growth due to its influence in integrating world economies and generating better markets. The study examined the impact of trade openness on economic performance of ECOWASMembers
focusing on Ghana and Nigeria (1975-2004).Data sourced from IFS and others, were analyzed employing ADF/PP stationarity, cointegration and vector error correction techniques. A unique long-run relationship between economic
performance, trade openness, real government expenditure, labour force and real capital stock for both Ghana and Nigeria was established, while about 88.9"10 and
83.1"10 errors made in the previous period were found to be corrected in the current period for the respective countries. In addition, trade openness and real
government expenditure impact positively the economies of Ghana and Nigeria.
However, the effectswere higher in the former than the latter
