No abstract

The question of whether remittances and foreign aid at the macro level impact private consumption in SSA has been explored in this study. Twenty-nine (29) SSA countries were sampled for the study from 2002 to 2017. The System Generalized Method of Moment (SGMM) estimator was applied in the study to account for the dynamics in the model. Empirical evidence showed that foreign aid and remittances exerted positive but insignificant impact on private consumption.

The single most important issue confronting a growing number of world economies today is the price of oil and its attendant consequences on economic output. Therefore the study investigated the impact of petroleum pump price on human welfare in Nigeria over the period 1990 to 2015. The study employed expost facto research design. Secondary time series data were used for the study and these were sourced from World Development Indicator (WDI, 2015) and Central Bank of Nigeria statistical bulletin, (CBN, 2015). The data collected were analyzed using autoregressive distributed lag. The inferences were drown at 1% and 5% significance level. The result showed that premium motor spirit price and dual purpose kerosene price exert a long-run negative and significant impact on human welfare in Nigeria (β = -0.15299, t = -5.31141 and β = -0.471399, t = -1.8838 respectively) while premium motor spirit price, dual purpose kerosene price and inflation rate exert a short-run negative and significant impact on human welfare in Nigeria (β = -0.71735, t= -4.3766; β = -0.62562, t = -2.9188 and β = -0.050310, t = -2.1829 respectively). The study concluded that as premium motor spirit price and dual purpose kerosene price and inflation rate increases, human welfare will fall and vice versa. Therefore for human welfare to increase, there must be a fall in premium motor spirit price and dual purpose kerosene price and inflation rate in Nigeria. The study recommended that Government and it agencies should ensure that petroleum pump prices should be regulated because they have a long way on the market. An increase in the price of petroleum products will lead to market failure because most products use either of these products. Since inflation rate worsen the welfare of people, the policy maker should find a way of control inflation in the system so that the welfare of the people will improve (better-off).

This study comparatively investigates the impacts of fiscal and monetary policies on poverty in Nigeria from 1986 to 2018. Using the Ordinary Least Square and Standardized or Beta Coefficient approach, we found that the Nigerian political system plays a vital role on a large number of its citizens living in extreme poverty. Other factors identified as the likely causes of poverty are insurgencies, terrorism, and low productivity among others. Also, monetary policy is more important in alleviating poverty than the fiscal policy which favored the monetary school arguments. Specifically, monetary measures like exchange rate and interest rate are more significant in alleviating poverty far more than inflation rate while fiscal measures proxy with government recurrent expenditure plays a more vital role in alleviating poverty in Nigeria than others like government capital expenditure and government recurrent expenditure. The study recommended that in the case of monetary measures, there is a need for Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria, to shift their attention towards key monetary policy measures like interest rate and exchange rate compare to other monetary measures.

The literature on the nexus between trade openness, income inequality and poverty appears conspicuously and of diverse outcomes. Perhaps, the mixed findings may be attributed to the methodology and economic structure of the country in view. The current study examines the trade openness on income inequality and poverty in Nigeria between 1981 and 2019 using Autoregressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) methodology. Our findings show that trade openness had different effects on inequality and poverty in Nigeria in the short and long run. While its relationship with inequality is a short-run phenomenon, it had a long-run relationship with poverty. Overall, trade openness had a declining effect on inequality and poverty. In the former, its impact was not statistically significant. However, the gains of trade openness on inequality and poverty were reversed when inequality influenced trade openness. In essence, with the influence of inequality, trade openness had an increasing effect on poverty. As a result, this study makes several recommendations to policymakers. To begin, a policy framework must be established to ensure that Nigerian trade is integrated with the rest of the world. Evidence from this study has suggested that policies such as restricting trade through border closures must not feature as a policy option as long as one of the goals of the economy is poverty reduction and reduction in inequality.