This study investigated possible causal relationships between fiscal deficit and exchange rate in Nigeria. The study adopted the vector autoregression (VAR) econometric technique to analyze the time series data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria and other sources. The study amongst other findings, found long run relationship between exchange rate and fiscal deficit, irrespective of how the deficit is financed. The study also found joint causality running from fiscal deficit to exchange rate with feedback. Also joint causality was found running from exchange rate to both the size of deficit finance through domestic and external borrowings, but without any feedback. Consequently, the variation in exchange rate are chiefly from both overall fiscal deficit financed through external and domestic borrowings. The study concluded that, fiscal deficit irrespective of how it is financed has significant negative effect on exchange rate in Nigeria and has contributed in worsening exchange rate volatility in Nigeria. The study recommends that the fiscal deficit should be scarcely deployed and moderated as a fiscal policy tool, as this causes shock and instability in price levels in general and exchange rate in particular.
This study empirically examined the impact of electricity power outages on Nigeria’s capital and labour productivity. The emphasis is on how frequent electricity outage reduces labour and capital effectiveness and other factors of production. To achieve the above objective, annual time series data on Total Factor Productivity - a proxy for Nigeria’s factors productivity, Power Outage (electric power transmission and distribution losses as % of output), and other controlled variables were used to estimate the relationship and all data were from World Bank Development Indicators (WDI). The Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FOLS) technique was adopted for analysis. The empirical results showed a negative relationship between power outages and factor productivity. The result also reveals that electricity pricing has a significant negative impact on the factor productivity while both electricity generation and population have a significant positive impact on Nigeria’s total factor productivity. The implication is that the substitution effect between labour and capital is positive, meaning that Nigeria exhibits a labour-intensive production function. In conclusion, the study is of the opinion that power outage and electricity pricing negatively impact factors productivity while electricity generation and population have a positive relationship with factors productivity in Nigeria.
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