Trade Liberalization Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examines the causal relationships between trade liberalization growth of the Nigerian economy and poverty. This study applied time series data for Nigeria. We employed the recently introduced Pesaran et al (2001) ARDL approach. Evidence from the study suggest that trade liberalization does not cause poverty reduction, implying that the benefit of trade liberalization does not trickle down to the poor in Nigeria. This suggests that countries with high propensity to import and poor commodity prices need not to strictly follow the one size fit all trade liberalization policies rather each country need to focus on trade policies peculiar to its own environment, which can deliver growth and translate growth into a meaningful poverty reduction.