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Public Debt, Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth in Nigeria
Get PDFPurpose: The study examines the short run and the long-run effects of public debt (disaggregated into external and domestic debt) and FDI on economic growth in Nigeria using the Bounds test approach to co-integration and error correction analysis. The short-run causal relationships among the variables are also examined using the Toda-Yamamoto’s approach to Granger non-causality test.
Method: Annual time series data spanning the period from 1981 to 2016 are utilized for the analysis.
Results: The study finds a significant negative effect of domestic debt on economic growth in Nigeria in the short-run and the long-run. It also finds the growth effect of external debt to be non-significant in the short-run, but positive and significant in the long-run. The growth effects of FDI on economic growth are found to be non-significant in the long-run and in the short-run. Further evidence from the study is that trade openness negatively affects economic growth in the short-run, while its long-run effect is also negative, but not statistically significant. Unidirectional causation was found only from domestic debt to economic growth. No significant causal relationships were found to exist among other variables.
Implications: In view of the empirical evidence, the study proffers as recommendations for policy consideration efforts by the government to enhance the creditworthiness of the country so as to be able to access external loans for financing long-run growth. It further recommends some degree of restrictions on imports (especially of consumption goods) as a measure to enhance the country\u27s long-run growth
Accessibility to, and Equal Opportunity for Education for Poverty Reduction in Nigeria : The National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) Perspective
Get PDFPrior literature has revealed that access to education and equal opportunity for education, are some of the major steps taken by the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) program to tackle the problem of poverty through the education sector in Nigeria. However, most studies on NEEDS and education have failed to address the effects of education under the program on poverty reduction. As NEEDS is primarily set to achieve poverty reduction in Nigeria, this study, therefore, examines the relationship between the accessibility and equal opportunity for education under the NEEDS and perceived poverty reduction through investigating the educational impacts of NEEDS on poverty reduction.
The paper suggests that for educational policies to serve in reducing poverty, such policies must be implemented in the context of poverty reduction; must involve seasoned teachers and administrators; and must conduct teacher-capability verification to flush out and retrain unqualified teachers. Given adequate infrastructure and funding, and if well adopted, the measures, if employed would bring about self-reliance, self-employment, income generation, and poverty reduction
Does Intelligence Influence Students\u27 Academic Achievement? A Structural Equation Modeling Approach
Get PDFPurpose: The study attempts to unearth the relative impact of intelligence and creative self-belief on creative capability and academic achievements.
Methods: Senior students from three different disciplines were purposively chosen from the business school of the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh. This study used 192 replies, with a response rate of 64 percent through a self-administered Survey. The study applied the structural equation model in AMOS 20 for data analysis.
Results: The results showed that neither intelligence nor creative self-belief, nor the students\u27 creative capability significantly predict the students\u27 academic achievement. However, it is observed that intelligence and creative self-belief significantly influence the students’ creative capability.
Implications: The most revealing implication of this study is to uncover the potential ways for exploring the relevance of the students’ intelligence, creative self-belief, and creative capability with their academic achievement.
Originality: This study is a novel attempt to explore the topic in the context of developing countries, particularly in South Asian contexts. Additionally, most of the studies conducted in this area are noted in school and high school levels. Interestingly, there are very few studies happened to be in the business school context
Farm Households’ Willingness to Contribute Labor for Conservation of Bamboo Forest Ecosystem: The case of Mao Komo Special Woreda Benishangul Gumuz Regional State, Ethiopia
Get PDFPurpose: This study was designed for the assessment of farm households’ willingness to contribute labor for conservation of bamboo forest ecosystem with the specific objectives of describing farmer’s attitude toward bamboo forest protection, exploring the amount of labor, the household’s would be willing to contribute for bamboo forest conservation and identifying factors affecting farmers\u27 willingness to contribute labor for bamboo forest conservation.
Method: Data for the study were collected from both primary and secondary sources. The multistage random-sampling technique was used in selecting 135 respondents followed by a probability proportional to size. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and bivariate probit model.
Results: The result of the bivariate probit model shows that the mean willingness to contribute labor for the conservation of bamboo forest was 14.15 man-days per year per household. The result from seemingly unrelated bivariate probit model indicates that household\u27s literacy status, income from bamboo forest, contact with extension agents, total cultivated land and access to credit have positive significant effects on willingness to contribute labor, while age of the respondent, distance from home to forest, initial bid, follow up bids and dependency ratio have a negative and significant effect on willingness to contribute labor. The study shows that the farmers in the study area are knowledgeable about intensive mass flowering of bamboo and massive depletion of bamboo forest and they are willing to participate in the conservation of bamboo forest to regenerate and return to the original position.
Implications: An effort would be needed to strengthen literacy, increase farmers’ awareness about the importance of conservation practices, ensure credit facilities and increase the frequency of extension contact is important to conserve the bamboo forest in the study area