SUMMARY
Chude, Nkiru, Chude, and Anah (2019) examined the relationship between government expenditure, economic growth, and poverty reduction in Nigeria using time series data over the period 1980-2013. Employing time series econometric techniques such as unit root tests, bound test co-integration approach, and error correction techniques within an ARDL framework yields more robust estimates. It is found that government spending affects economic growth positively and significantly by increasing real private investment and fixed capital accumulation which increases capital accumulation reduces current account deficit and external debt burden and improves education/skills of the households by improving human capital. The study suggested policies the role of government should be extended to ensure the magnitude and the quality of private investment are as high as possible.
Olofin (2010) investigated the relationship between the components of defense spending and poverty reduction in Nigeria for the period 1990-2010. He estimated four models using the Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS) method, two in which poverty index constructed from human development indicators serves as the dependent variable and the others in which the infant mortality rate serves as the dependent variable. The results reveal that military expenditure per soldier, the military participation rate, trade, population, and output per capita square were positively related to the poverty indicator. They were all found to be statistically significant except for trade and output per capita square. The population was not significant in the model. Military expenditure, secondary school enrolment, and output per capita were negatively related to the poverty level. However, only total military expenditure was found to be statistically significant in models one and three, while output per capita in model three was found to be statistically significant. Others were statistically insignificant. The findings confirm the tradeoff between the well-being and capital intensiveness of the military in Nigeria, pointing to the vulnerability of the poor among Nigerians.
