IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/agd/wpaper/15-056.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Government Size, Openness and Income Risk Nexus: New Evidence from Some African Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Ikechukwu D. NWAKA

    (Eastern Mediterranean University)

  • Stephen T. ONIFADE

    (Eastern Mediterranean University)

Abstract

Empirical evidence for the compensation hypothesis holds that trade openness independent of income risk has no significant effects on government size. Hence, using time series data for the period 1965-2013 from Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa and applying the bounds test method of cointegration, this paper investigates the nature of the relationship between openness, income risk, terms of trade volatility and income per capita on government size in each of the 5 African countries. Our empirical findings show a long-run relationship particularly in Egypt and Ghana and a limited evidence for other countries. Similarly, after applying both the Autoregressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) and Fully Modified OLS (FM-OLS) on original data and Moving Average (MV) converted data, our findings vary across the countries due to country-specific factors. Hence, the evidence we find does not support the compensation hypothesis. However, we observe significant positive effects of income per capita on government size for each country and some evidence of the mitigating and cushioning effects of governments when exposed to income risks and volatility due to trade openness. We therefore suggest some appropriate policy recommendations for the selected countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Ikechukwu D. NWAKA & Stephen T. ONIFADE, 2015. "Government Size, Openness and Income Risk Nexus: New Evidence from Some African Countries," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 15/056, African Governance and Development Institute..
    • Handle: RePEc:agd:wpaper:15/056
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/Government-Size-Openness-and-Income-Risk-Nexus.pdf
    File Function: Revised version, 2015
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pesaran, M. Hashem & Shin, Yongcheol & Smith, Richard J., 2000. "Structural analysis of vector error correction models with exogenous I(1) variables," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 293-343, August.
    2. Simplice Asongu & Uchenna Efobi & Ibukun Beecroft, 2015. "Inclusive Human Development in Pre-crisis Times of Globalization-driven Debts," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 27(4), pages 428-442, December.
    3. Peter C. B. Phillips & Bruce E. Hansen, 1990. "Statistical Inference in Instrumental Variables Regression with I(1) Processes," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 57(1), pages 99-125.
    4. Ramos Mabugu & Margaret Chitiga, 2007. "South Africa Trade Liberalization and Poverty in a Dynamic Microsimulation CGE Model," Working Papers 200718, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    5. Phillips, Peter C B, 1995. "Fully Modified Least Squares and Vector Autoregression," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 63(5), pages 1023-1078, September.
    6. Charles R. Frank Jr. & Kwang Suk Kim & Larry E. Westphal, 1975. "Foreign Trade Regimes and Economic Development: South Korea," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number fran75-1, June.
    7. Alesina, Alberto & Perotti, Roberto, 1997. "The Welfare State and Competitiveness," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(5), pages 921-939, December.
    8. Dani Rodrik, 1998. "Has Globalization Gone Too Far?," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(2), pages 81-94, March.
    9. Muhammad Islam, 2004. "The long run relationship between openness and government size: evidence from bounds test," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(9), pages 995-1000.
    10. Dani Rodrik, 1998. "Why Do More Open Economies Have Bigger Governments?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(5), pages 997-1032, October.
    11. Asongu, Simplice & Nwachukwu, Jacinta C., 2015. "Finance and Inclusive Human Development: Evidence from Africa," MPRA Paper 71787, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Charles R. Frank Jr. & Kwang Suk Kim & Larry E. Westphal, 1975. "Appendices to "Foreign Trade Regimes and Economic Development: South Korea"," NBER Chapters, in: Foreign Trade Regimes and Economic Development: South Korea, pages 245-257, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Paolo Epifani & Gino Gancia, 2009. "Openness, Government Size and the Terms of Trade," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 76(2), pages 629-668.
    14. M. Hashem Pesaran & Yongcheol Shin & Richard J. Smith, 2001. "Bounds testing approaches to the analysis of level relationships," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(3), pages 289-326.
    15. Cameron, David R., 1978. "The Expansion of the Public Economy: A Comparative Analysis," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 72(4), pages 1243-1261, December.
    16. Johansen, Soren, 1991. "Estimation and Hypothesis Testing of Cointegration Vectors in Gaussian Vector Autoregressive Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(6), pages 1551-1580, November.
    17. Michael D. McKenzie, 1999. "The Impact of Exchange Rate Volatility on International Trade Flows," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(1), pages 71-106, February.
    18. Alesina, Alberto & Wacziarg, Romain, 1998. "Openness, country size and government," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 305-321, September.
    19. Liberati, Paolo, 2007. "Trade Openness, Capital Openness and Government Size," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(2), pages 215-247, August.
    20. Ikechukwu D Nwaka & Kalu E Uma & Gulcay Tuna, 2015. "Trade openness and unemployment: Empirical evidence for Nigeria," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 26(1), pages 117-136, March.
    21. Bird, Richard M, 1971. "Wagner's o Law' of Expanding State Activity," Public Finance = Finances publiques, , vol. 26(1), pages 1-26.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stephen Taiwo Onifade & Savaş Çevik & Savaş Erdoğan & Simplice Asongu & Festus Victor Bekun, 2020. "An empirical retrospect of the impacts of government expenditures on economic growth: new evidence from the Nigerian economy," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 9(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Stephen T. Onifade & Ahmet Ay & Simplice A. Asongu & Festus V. Bekun, 2019. "Revisiting the Trade and Unemployment Nexus: Empirical Evidence from the Nigerian Economy," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 19/079, African Governance and Development Institute..
    3. Abdul-Razak Bawa Yussif & Stephen Taiwo Onifade & Ahmet Ay & Murat Canitez & Festus Victor Bekun, 2022. "Modeling the volatility of exchange rate and international trade in Ghana: empirical evidence from GARCH and EGARCH," Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 40(2), pages 308-324, January.
    4. ONIFADE Stephen Taiwo & ACET Hakan & ÇEVİK Savaş, 2022. "Modeling The Impacts Of Msmes' Contributions To Gdp And Their Constraints On Unemployment: The Case Of African’S Most Populous Country," Studies in Business and Economics, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 17(1), pages 154-170, April.
    5. Olawole, Kolawole & Adebayo, Temidayo, 2017. "Openness and Government Size:The Compensation and Efficiency Hypotheses Considered for Nigeria," MPRA Paper 82022, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Dimitra Mitsi, 2021. "Good Governance and Economic Growth in South European Countries," Review of European Studies, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 13(2), pages 1-26, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ikechukwu D. Nwaka & Stephen T. Onifade, 2015. "Government Size, Openness and Income Risk Nexus: New Evidence from Some African Countries," Research Africa Network Working Papers 15/056, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    2. Muhammad Zakaria & Samreen Shakoor, 2011. "Relationship Between Government Size and Trade Openness: Evidence from Pakistan," Transition Studies Review, Springer;Central Eastern European University Network (CEEUN), vol. 18(2), pages 328-341, December.
    3. Paolo Epifani & Gino Gancia, 2009. "Openness, Government Size and the Terms of Trade," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 76(2), pages 629-668.
    4. Paolo Epifani & Gino Gancia, 2005. "On Globalization and the Growth of Governments," Working Papers 267, Barcelona School of Economics.
    5. Vikas Dixit, 2014. "Relation between Trade Openness, Capital Openness and Government Size in India," Foreign Trade Review, , vol. 49(1), pages 1-29, February.
    6. Giuranno, Michele G. & Nocco, Antonella, 2020. "Trade tariff, wage gap and public spending," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 167-179.
    7. McCloud, Nadine & Delgado, Michael S. & Holmes, Chanit'a, 2018. "Does a stronger system of law and order constrain the effects of foreign direct investment on government size?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 258-283.
    8. Erkam Sari & Hakan Hotunluoglu, 2021. "Government Size and Openness: Insights Basedon Country Classifications," World Journal of Applied Economics, WERI-World Economic Research Institute, vol. 7(1), pages 1-16, June.
    9. Khalil Ahmad & Amjad Ali & Michael Yang, 2022. "The Effect Of Trade Liberalization On Expenditure Structure Of Pakistan," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 11(1), pages 73-84, March.
    10. Andersen, Torben M. & Sørensen, Allan, 2023. "The interdependencies between the private and public sectors in open economies," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    11. Erauskin, Iñaki, 2015. "The net foreign asset position and government size," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 130-148.
    12. Erauskin, Iñaki, 2013. "The impact of financial openness on the size of utility-enhancing government," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 7, pages 1-56.
    13. Erauskin, Iñaki & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2020. "Financial globalization and its consequences for productive government expenditure," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    14. Michael Benarroch & Manish Pandey, 2017. "The Impact of Imports and Exports on the Size and Composition of Government Expenditures," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(3), pages 57-68, March.
    15. Antonio Sciala' & Paolo Liberati, 2008. "The impact of economic openness on the vertical structure of the public sector," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0085, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno".
    16. María Franco Chuaire & Carlos Scartascini & Mariano Tommasi, 2017. "State capacity and the quality of policies. Revisiting the relationship between openness and government size," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 133-156, July.
    17. Ma, Yong & Yao, Chi, 2022. "Openness and government size: Revisiting the relationship using a large cross-country panel," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 448-465.
    18. Benarroch, Michael & Pandey, Manish, 2012. "The relationship between trade openness and government size: Does disaggregating government expenditure matter?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 239-252.
    19. Iñaki Erauskin & Stephen J. Turnovsky, 2019. "Financial Globalization and the Increase in the Size of Government: Are They Related?," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 219-253, April.
    20. Felbermayr, Gabriel J. & Larch, Mario & Lechthaler, Wolfgang, 2012. "Endogenous labor market institutions in an open economy," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 30-45.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:agd:wpaper:15/056. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Asongu Simplice (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/agdiycm.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.