Openness, Stock Market Development, and Industrial Growth in Nigeria

In recent years the Nigerian economy has been moving towards increased liberalisation, greater openness, and greater financial development. This paper examines the implications of these developments for industrial growth in Nigeria. A simple model, which relates industrial output growth to openness, stock market development, and a battery of control variables, is specified and estimated, using annual data covering the period 1970- 1997. The empirical evidence strongly suggests that openness to world trade and stock market development are among the key determinants of industrial output growth in Nigeria. The other important factors are human capital input, non-military expenditure, gross domestic product (GDP), which reflects the size of physical capital, and inflation.