NIGERIAN AND MALAYSIAN GROWTH EMPIRICS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS USING AUTOREGRESSIVE DISTRIBUTED LAG APPROACH

Abstract

Quit a number of similarities could be drawn from Nigeria and Malaysia. For instance, the duo is in the tropical region, which favours agricultural cultivation. Also, both countries gained their independence from the same colonial master (British) in almost the same year, and practice federal system of government. Today, Malaysia as part of the emerging economies has set a better economic pace in the country`s development, and hoping to attain her vision 2020 of joining the developed economies of the world. However, Nigeria is in economic recession at present as a result of a shortage in the export earnings. This paper uses autoregressive distributive lags (ARDL) model, annual data from 1980 to 2015 to compare the macroeconomic variable performances of both countries. The paper finds that Malaysian import shows a negative and significant result, and the gross capital formation and export are positive and significant to determine economic growth in both the short-run and long-run. The results further show that, in Nigeria, export and gross capital formation is positive and significant in the shortrun only, but in the long-run gross capital formation is significant and export is insignificant. Therefore, the Nigerian government policy-makers should direct the export earnings in the short-run to a better productive sector that is capable of generating more exportation in the long-run.