Title: Competition, trade openness and economic growth: time series evidence from Nigeria

Authors: Umar Muhammad Bello; Theresa Onaji-Benson

Addresses: Department of Economics, Federal University Lafia, P.M.B. 146 Lafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria ' Department of Economics, Federal University Lafia, P.M.B. 146 Lafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Abstract: This paper investigates the relationship among competition, trade and economic growth in Nigeria over the period 1981 to 2015, using quarterly dataset, while controlling for financial development and institutions. Johansen's cointegration approach and vector error correction model (VECM) served as the methods of analyses. The results indicate that, in the absence of strong institutions, trade openness is more beneficial to growth than competition. While in the presence of strong institutions, competition is more beneficial to economic growth than trade openness. This suggests that within the Nigerian context competition and trade openness are substitutes for promoting economic growth.

Keywords: competition; trade; economic growth; cointegration; vector error correction model; VECM; Nigeria.

DOI: 10.1504/IJC.2019.102812

International Journal of Competitiveness, 2019 Vol.1 No.4, pp.279 - 292

Received: 19 May 2017
Accepted: 11 Dec 2017
Published online: 08 Oct 2019 *

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