FISCAL POLICY

This study investigates the magnitude of the direction of government expenditure and its impact on the wellbeing of the people with the aim of alleviating poverty. Some social indicators were employed in the study which reflects the living standard of the people and they include health, agriculture, education, microfinance and life expectancy. By employing these indicators, the rate at which government expenditure affect the lives of people and also us relative impact on poverty reduction were determined In this study, the Ordinary Least Squares method of analysis was used with Poverty as the dependent variable and five independent variables. They are government expenditure on education, health, agriculture, microfinance and life expectancy. The data used in this research was collected from secondary data obtained from the CBN statistical bulletin. The major findings shows that government expenditure on health education and agriculture are significant and a unit increase of government expenditure in these sectors can reduce poverty level. While that of life expectancy and microfinance are insignificant and a unit increase will increase poverty level. Recommendation were proffered based on the findings of this research that government at all levels should gear up its investment in agricultural research, health and education and ensure that its expenditure are channeled towards projects that will reduce poverty level in Nigeria so as to drive the economy towards growth and development.

This study examines the impact of fiscal and financial policies on industrial performance in Nigeria over the period 1981 to 2023, drawing on endogenous growth theory, which emphasises the role of policy-driven capital accumulation, technological progress, and productivity in sustaining long-term economic growth. Specifically, the study investigates the effects of government expenditure and financial depth on industrial output, recognising that effective government intervention and a well-functioning financial system can generate growth-enhancing externalities. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model is employed to capture both short-run and long-run dynamics. The empirical results reveal that government expenditure exerts a positive and statistically significant effect on industrial performance in both the short run and long run, supporting the endogenous growth proposition that productive public investment stimulates sustained industrial growth. In contrast, credit to the private sector, used as a measure of financial depth, has a negative and statistically significant effect, suggesting inefficiencies in the allocation of financial resources to the industrial sector. Inflation is found to have an insignificant effect on industrial performance. The ARDL bounds test confirms the existence of a stable long-run relationship among fiscal policy, financial policy, inflation, and industrial performance. Based on these findings, the study recommends strengthening productivity-oriented government expenditure, particularly in industrial infrastructure, alongside reforms in the financial sector to improve the effectiveness of private sector credit in supporting industrial activities. It further emphasises the need for coordinated and long-term fiscal and financial policy frameworks to promote sustainable industrial growth in Nigeria.

This study empirically investigated the impact of fiscal policy on economic development in Nigeria, covering the period from 2005 to 2022. Driven by the persistent challenge of low growth and high poverty rates despite resource wealth, the research specifically assessed the influence of Government Expenditure, Taxation (Non-Oil Revenue), and Public Debt on key indicators like GDP growth and Non- Oil Sector Contribution. Utilizing an ex-post facto design and applying time series econometrics, including the Error Correction Model (ECM), the study confirmed a long-run relationship among the variables. Findings revealed that while Government Expenditure had a positive and significant effect on GDP growth, both Taxation and Public Debt posed challenges: non-oil revenue was insignificant in driving diversification, and public debt had a significant negative long-run impact on development. The study concludes that the effectiveness of Nigeria's fiscal policy is currently undermined by an ineffective tax regime and an unsustainable debt burden. The key recommendation is for the government to implement urgent and holistic tax reforms alongside a strict debt management strategy to redirect resources toward productive capital investment and achieve sustainable economic development.

The broad objective of this study is to examine the effect of fiscal policy and aggregate economic activities on economic growth in Nigeria. To achieve the purpose of this study four hypothesis were formulated to guide the study, literature review was carried out on the variables and hypothesis of the study. A dynamic equation is specified to describe the relationship between the dependent variable RGDP and the independent variable GDP = f(Tax, HDC, GINV, TRN, SAVS). the study examined fiscal policy, aggregate economic activities and economic growth in Nigeria utilizing annual time series data for the period of 1981 to 2021. This research employed the following methods for analysis: Descriptive Statistics, Unit Root test, Co-Integration test, granger causality test and vector autoregressive technique of estimation. Based on the results of empirical analysis, it can be ascertained that there is sufficient evidence to indicate that fiscal policy, aggregate economic activities have long run relationship with economic growth in Nigeria as the trace statistics and max Eigen value test indicate a case of co-integration among the variables. However, according to the VECM result fiscal policy is not significant in influencing economic in the short run while in the long run it significantly influences economic growth. Consumption both first and second period lags significantly influences economic growth in Nigeria while investment seems not influence economic growth in Nigeria. Thus, it can be concluded, that fiscal policy and consumption drives economic growth in Nigeria while investment does not