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This paper examined the short‐ and long‐run impacts of gasoline price, macroeconomic factors and road length on road traffic crashes, injuries and fatalities in Nigeria. Annual data from 1995 to 2019 and autoregressive distributed lag approach were employed. Results suggest that gasoline price, per capita income, road length and population density significantly influence road safety outcomes. Gasoline price has a positive short‐run impact on crashes, injuries, and fatalities contrary to findings in developed countries. Road crashes tend to decrease when income increases in the short term. Population density leads to improvement in road safety outcomes while road length exacerbates it. Government's policy on gasoline price increase could worsen road safety outcomes unless it is accompanied by improvement in road infrastructure, safe public transport and economic growth, [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper empirically examines the growth effects of stabilisation funds and fiscal rules in oil‐rich African countries, using Nigeria as a case study. The analysis captures the ‘international standard’ of the two fiscal instruments by empirically comparing the effects of Nigerian instruments with those of non‐African oil‐exporting countries (i.e. Norway and Mexico). The results show that the fiscal instruments are effective in Nigeria and that the effectiveness is comparable to that of non‐African economies, implying that the Nigerian instruments meet ‘international standard’. The paper also discusses the development policy implications of the results, one of which is that the fiscal instruments can be used to control risky behaviours of economic agents in oil‐rich African economies. For example, since the instruments are effective in increasing growth (i.e. real GDP growth) and limiting its volatility, they can be employed to control increases in demand for and supply of risky sex caused by increases in real per capita income during oil booms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the asymmetric non-linear relationship between insurance and economic growth in Nigeria between 1976 and 2010. Prior studies have examined the direction of causality between insurance and economic growth with mixed conclusions in the insurance-growth literature. Moreover, the majority of these studies assumed symmetric causal relationships by concentrating mainly on testing the supply-leading and demand-following hypothesis. This paper, therefore, contributes to the literature by examining the asymmetric causality test between insurance and economic growth in Nigeria. After the cointegration, the asymmetry causality and the asymmetric impulse responses show a robust significant relationship between high gross domestic product (GDP) and low insurance in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study examines the dynamic relationship between oil revenue, government spending and economic growth in Nigeria. Since the discovery of oil, oil proceeds have dominated the country's federation account and have improved public spending. In this paper, we analyse if the huge government spending has improved the rate of economic growth. To do this, the multivariate vector autoregression framework with special attention to Generalised Impulse Response Function is adopted in analysing the annual data of oil revenue, total government expenditure and real Gross Domestic Product from 1980 to 2015. We find evidence that oil receipts remain the major route which public spending is financed and the fundamental source for growth. Hence, there is need for the government to diversify the sources of foreign exchange inflow of the country. The diversification of the economy is required to insulate it from external shocks. It is recommended for Nigeria to explore ways of reviving its huge agricultural potential which has been neglected since the discovery of oil in addition to exploring its rich untapped solid minerals deposit in order to promote diversification of the economy away from a mono cultural product base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the dynamic effects of external debt on economic growth in Nigeria from 1970 through 2013. We begin by constructing an external debt sustainability index using principal component analysis to capture the overall effects of external debt indicators on economic growth. The empirical analysis is based on the ARDL bound test. The results show a long-run cointegration relationship between the variables. While external debt exerts an adverse effect of −0.069 per cent on growth in the long run, the external debt sustainability index shows a positive effect of 0.072 per cent and 0.024 per cent on growth in the long and short run. The findings suggest the government should reduce its expenditure and mobilize revenue through domestic sources to invest in projects with a high rate of return to enable debt repayment and stimulate growth. To maintain debt ratios within a manageable threshold so as to avoid being debt trapped, foreign loans should only be contracted on concessional terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tin mining carried out on the Jos Plateau since the beginning of the last century has disturbed some 320 km2 of agricultural land. Formal attempts at reclamation of this land failed, but local farmers have developed a successful informal strategy for reclamation. This paper reports on a study undertaken to comprehend the farmers’‘informal’ approach to soil fertility management. Their soil fertility management practices centre on the use of a complex combination of traditional organic manures and ‘modern’ inorganic fertilizers that they have developed entirely on the basis of experimentation. A central focus of this paper is therefore the empirical knowledge base of the farmers and an assessment of any underlying scientific explanations for their strategies, including an analysis of their assertion that different brands of NPK fertilizers differ in their nutrient value. This discussion is followed by a consideration of the difficulties in accessing and understanding empirical knowledge. It is concluded that farmers’ knowledge and understanding of the values of different fertilizers and manures does have a scientific basis. It is argued that for further agricultural development to take place on the Jos Plateau, there must be synergy between farmers’ empirical knowledge (which has led to the development of successful and effective soil fertility management strategies, unlike the attempts of the local ‘scientific’ communities) and scientific knowledge (which can identify health and environmental hazards which may not be immediately visible to farmers). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, based on fieldwork results, explores traditional management systems (TMS) in the arid zone fisheries of north-eastern Nigeria with particular reference to their impact on rural poverty. The first section provides a historical background by tracing the evolution of the TMS since the nineteenth century, with reference to government policy on fisheries management and poverty alleviation. The second gives an overview of TMS, including definitions, distribution, principal objectives, regulatory mechanisms and the impact of TMS on the performance of the fisheries and on the livelihoods of rural people. The third considers the perceptions and attitudes of the fishing communities with regards to the fisheries and TMS. The paper concludes, paradoxically, that while TMS provide a basis for the sustainable livelihoods of many fishing people, they also reflect and enforce the social positions of the rich and powerful members of society who oversee them, at the expense of the poor. In the future, poverty alleviation in fisheries will need to incorporate both sectoral and non-sectoral strategies– dealing with the existing‘paradox of TMS’ by encouraging appropriate institutional changes and community development, and recognizing the importance of employment creation in other sectors of the economy as a source of alternative income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of oil price shocks on the economy has occupied the attention of researchers for almost four decades. Majority of studies support the existence of a negative association, while some recent evidences seem to have popularised the view that outcomes are the artefacts of misspecified functional forms. This study, although similar in spirit to this popular opinion, is, however, distinct in a number of ways. Firstly, unlike most Nigeria-specific studies, this paper explores alternative measures of oil price shocks, which have been developed and used in the literature with a view to ascertaining the extent to which conclusions about the oil price-growth association depend on the definition of shocks adopted. More importantly, this, to the best of our knowledge, is a pioneer attempt at introducing threshold effects into the linkage between oil price shocks and output growth in Nigeria. The relatively recent regime-dependent multivariate threshold autoregressive model, together with the characteristic impulse response functions and forecast error variance decomposition, is adopted in this study. Using quarterly data spanning 1985-2008, a non-linear model of oil price shocks and economic growth is estimated. Our main results indicate that oil price shocks do not account for a significant proportion of observed movements in macroeconomic aggregates. This pattern persists despite the introduction of threshold effects. This implied the enclave nature of Nigeria's oil sector with weak linkages. Therefore, the need to spend oil revenue productively is imperative if favourable effect on real output growth is envisaged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In academic studies of the interface between developing countries and large multinational oil corporations, scholars have noted that over time and through repeated interaction, the developing countries tend to negotiate better outcomes for themselves: they progress along a learning curve by incrementally improving their outcomes through bargaining and strategic interaction. This phenomenon can be demonstrated in a number of oil-rich developing countries. Nigeria's case, however, is more complex. During the two decades following its independence, the state successfully negotiated for more control over—made strides in the developing of the skills necessary to manage—its petroleum industry, as our model would predict. Then, in a puzzling late-1970s-to-mid-1980s change of course, the government abruptly gave back concessions, undermined local entrepreneurial endeavors, and repealed indigenization laws. This paper combines, in the analytic narrative tradition, the case study method with an extensive form game; it applies a dynamic bargaining model to Nigeria's historical experience, demonstrating that Nigeria improved its outcomes and ascended along the “bargaining learning curve,” only to reverse policy and “unlearn,” with serious consequences for the Nigerian population. Even so, the demonstration of both successful and improved outcomes in past negotiations give evidence that Nigeria could once again ascend its bargaining learning curve if the government were to re-commit to such a policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to estimate the productivity change of Nigerian insurance companies and to rank the companies analysed in the sample according to their productivity score. This benchmark exercise provides the companies analysed with a view of how their relative productivity can be upgraded. For this purpose, the non-parametric Luenberger productivity model is used. For comparative purposes, the non-parametric Luenberger–Hicks–Moorsteen productivity indicator is also used. The companies are ranked according to their total productivity for the period 1994–2005, using both models, which produce variations in the respective results. Economic implications arising from the study are derived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a widely accepted fact that persistent inequality between men and women constrains a society's productivity and ultimately slows its rate of economic growth. The economy pays for this inequality in reduced labour productivity today and diminished national output tomorrow. Motivated by this, the study aim is to assess the possibilities of enhancing productivity gains by improving the efficiency of small-scale agriculture through gender-responsive intra-household allocation of resources in south-western Nigeria. The study adopts a stochastic parametric decomposition method which yields efficiency measures that are not distorted by statistical noise to estimate the efficiency level of resource allocation by small-scale cassava producers. The results indicate that average overall productive efficiency in the sample was 75.78 per cent, implying that small-scale cassava farmers in the sample could reduce total variable cost by 24.22 per cent if they reduce labour, fertilizer, land and capital applications to levels observed in the changing input mix (technical efficiency) and then obtain optimal input mix for the given input prices and technology (allocative efficiency). The average technical efficiency and allocative efficiency indexes for the sample were 82.2 per cent and 92.2 per cent respectively. Also, evidence from empirical analysis of data from the male respondents showed that the average economic, technical and allocative efficiency indexes were 88.06 per cent, 89.34 per cent and 78.67 per cent respectively while the same computed for the female sample were 94.9 per cent, 74.85 per cent and 71.03 per cent respectively. Labour was the most limiting factor in cassava production suggesting that the technologies that enhance the productivity of labour are likely to achieve significant positive effects on cassava production. The paper shares the notion that producers' control over the means of production and impact of development are related and has influence on the economic efficiency and growth of society. Again, technical inefficiency constituted a more serious problem than allocative inefficiency, thus most cost savings will accrue to improvement in technical efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the structure, evolution and performance of the Nigerian capital market. The number and branches of financial institutions increased significantly since its inception in 1960. So also did the listed companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange market. Some of the factors responsible for the increase are the indigenization programmes, various economic reforms and government imposition on banks to invest a significant portion of their reserve capital in priority sectors. However, the increase is only in naira terms since a rapidly depreciating naira pushed share prices lower in dollar terms. The pattern of growth is, therefore, far from impressive when compared with other emerging markets. In recent years, a combination of new listings, manifested by privatization and commercialization of state owned firms, as well as higher prices increased total market capitalization. Investor optimism, regulatory and tax benefits have contributed. The naira-based performance is misleading, however, since the dollar-based performance shows a decline rather than an increase. One endemic problem seems to be market liquidity. Using liquidity as a measure of stock market development, therefore, it seems that the Nigerian stock market is illiquid and that it has contributed very little to the growth of the Nigerian economy. Le document examine la structure, l'évolution et le comportement du marché des capitaux au Nigeria. Depuis la mise en place de ce marché en 1960, les institutions financières et les succursales se sont multipliées; il en est de même pour les entreprises cotées à la Bourse nigériane. Parmi les facteurs sous-jacents à cette expansion figurent les programmes d'indigénisation, les réformes économiques et l'exigence faite aux banques par le gouvernement d'investir une importante fraction de leurs réserves dans les secteurs prioritaires de l'éco... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]