Role of Institutions and Resource Abundance in Inclusiveness of Nigeria's Economic Growth

Abstract: This study examined the long-run and short-run effects of resource abundance and institution on inclusive growth (and its components) in Nigeria. Employing annual data spanning the period 1980-2013, the paper applied the Auto-regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach to analyse models articulated based on standard theoretical and empirical literature on inclusive growth. The long-run results reveal that inflation dampens growth in GDP per capita, while government expenditure raises it. Further, resource abundance and human capital development promote growth in GDP per capita. Similarly, the short-run results show that inflation dampens growth in GDP per capita, while government expenditure raises it. Also, resource abundance escalates growth in GDP per capita, while corruption reduces it. The long-run results indicate that human capital development and compliance with law and order engender reduction in inequality in Nigeria. However, results suggest that decreasing efforts in the control of corruption (which implies high level of corruption) and high financial deepening have increasing effects on inequality in Nigeria. In the same vein, the short run results show that both financial deepening and resource abundance raise inequality in Nigeria, while human capital development reduces it. The long results show that, while compliance with law and order and financial deepening promote inclusive growth, government expenditure and resource abundance hinder it. Based on the foregoing, it is recommended that the activities of the law enforcement agencies be improved. There is also the need to further promote human capital development so as to promote growth; reduce inequality and foster inclusive growth in Nigeria.

JEL classification: F43, O13, O43, O47
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