Cross-Country Trade and Economic Growth: An Impact Analysis of Nigeria’s Economic Growth

Abstract

This research studied cross country trade and economic growth with the analysis of its impact on Nigeria’s economic growth. It covered time series data from 1992 to 2020 with gross domestic product, exports, imports, foreign direct investment and openness of trade as variables included in the model. The ARDL model was used for data analysis and the outcome showed positive and significant relationships between exports, imports and openness of trade and economic growth while the relationship between foreign direct investment and economic growth was negative but, significant. The gap created in this study lies in the year of coverage and the variables of the model which actively are involved in international trade compared to variables of reviewed studies.  The study concluded that variables with positive relationships with economic growth are the ones that contribute or cause economic growth to increase as they increase while foreign direct investment that has negative relationship with economic growth only reduces economic growth as it increases in value. It recommended that priority should be given to local production of export goods and the reduction of import goods with the exception of technology imports.