IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/99975.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Non-linear Relation between External Debt and Economic Growth in Nigeria: Does the Investment Channel Matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Adeniyi, Oluwatosin
  • Adekunle, Wasiu
  • Orekoya, Samuel

Abstract

Large external debt stock has been identified as one of the most important factors which have restricted the development of many poor countries. The consensus in the literature remains that external debt promotes growth to the extent that a country does not exceed its debt carrying capacity. Otherwise, additional debt accumulation would serve as a tax on future investment returns capable of creating disincentive to invest in the highly indebted countries. In the light of these arguments, this study investigated the possible role of domestic investment in the non-linear relation between external debt and economic growth in Nigeria over the period from 1981 to 2015. Based on the results of threshold regression analysis employed in this study, the overall findings showed that the impact of external debt on economic growth is sensitive to both measures of external debt used, and whether or not the role of domestic investment is accounted for. Specifically, this study confirmed the existence of the debt Laffer curve associated with the debt overhang theory arising from excessive external debt accumulation. Similarly, empirical support was obtained for the crowding-out effect of excessive external debt servicing. Also, accounting for the role of domestic investment in the non-linear relation between external debt and economic growth reduces the optimal debt carrying capacity of the country. It is therefore suggested that the Nigerian government internalizes a maximum ceiling of 6.81% as the share of external debt stock in gross national income (GNI) so as to enjoy the resulting growth benefits. External debt financing sources that are free of interest charge could also be explored so as to circumvent the burden imposed by excessive external debt servicing.

Suggested Citation

  • Adeniyi, Oluwatosin & Adekunle, Wasiu & Orekoya, Samuel, 2018. "Non-linear Relation between External Debt and Economic Growth in Nigeria: Does the Investment Channel Matter?," MPRA Paper 99975, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 07 Apr 2019.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:99975
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/99975/1/MPRA_paper_99975.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Checherita-Westphal, Cristina & Rother, Philipp, 2010. "The impact of high and growing government debt on economic growth: an empirical investigation for the euro area," Working Paper Series 1237, European Central Bank.
    2. Zahra Karimi Takanlou, 2014. "Can Budget Deficits Financing, Crowed Out Private Sector? Comparative Study of the Cases of Iran and Algeria," Iranian Economic Review (IER), Faculty of Economics,University of Tehran.Tehran,Iran, vol. 18(3), pages 1-25, Autumn.
    3. repec:bla:kyklos:v:45:y:1992:i:3:p:363-78 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Njimanted G. FORGHA & Mukete E. MBELLA & Forbe H. NGANGNCHI, 2014. "“External Debt, Domestic Investment and Economic Growth in Cameroon” A system Estimation Approach," Journal of Economics Bibliography, KSP Journals, vol. 1(1), pages 3-16, December.
    5. Bassey Okon Ebi & Imoke Douglas Imoke, 2017. "Public Debt Carrying Capacity and Debt Transmission Channels: The Nigerian Experience," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 7(5), pages 41-52.
    6. Mohsen Mehrara, 2007. "Does Inflation Harm Economic Growth in Iran," Iranian Economic Review (IER), Faculty of Economics,University of Tehran.Tehran,Iran, vol. 12(3), pages 43-56, fall & wi.
    7. Krugman, Paul, 1988. "Financing vs. forgiving a debt overhang," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 253-268, November.
    8. Ismaila Jarju & Edward Nyarko & Kormay Adams & Ozolina Haffner & Olukayode S. Odeniran, 2016. "The Relationship Between External Debt And Economic Growth In The West African Monetary Zone: A Panel Data Analysis," Working Papers 12, West African Monetary Institute.
    9. Osinubi, T.S. & Olaleru, O.E., 2006. "Budget Deficits, External Debt And Economic Growth In Nigeria," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 6(3).
    10. repec:agr:journl:v:4(605):y:2015:i:4(605):p:189-198 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Catherine Pattillo & Hélène Poirson & Luca Antonio Ricci, 2011. "External Debt and Growth," Review of Economics and Institutions, Università di Perugia, vol. 2(3).
    12. Hansen, Bruce E., 1999. "Threshold effects in non-dynamic panels: Estimation, testing, and inference," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 345-368, December.
    13. Andreas Savvides, 1992. "Investment Slowdown in Developing Countries During the 1980s: Debt Overhang or Foreign Capital Inflows?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(3), pages 363-378, August.
    14. Doğan, İbrahim & Bilgili, Faik, 2014. "The non-linear impact of high and growing government external debt on economic growth: A Markov Regime-switching approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 213-220.
    15. Forgha, Njimanted G. & Mbella, Mukete E. & Ngangnchi, Forbe H., 2014. "“External Debt, Domestic Investment and Economic Growth in Cameroon” A system Estimation Approach," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 1(1), pages 3-16.
    16. Toan Quoc Nguyen & Mr. Benedict J. Clements & Ms. Rina Bhattacharya, 2003. "External Debt, Public Investment, and Growth in Low-Income Countries," IMF Working Papers 2003/249, International Monetary Fund.
    17. Ms. Hélène Poirson & Mr. Luca A Ricci & Ms. Catherine A Pattillo, 2004. "What Are the Channels Through Which External Debt Affects Growth?," IMF Working Papers 2004/015, International Monetary Fund.
    18. Walid BENAYED & Foued Badr GABSI & Samia OMRANE BELGUITH, 2015. "Threshold Effect of Public Debt on Domestic Investment: Evidence from Selected African Countries," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania / Editura Economica, vol. 0(4(605), W), pages 189-198, Winter.
    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. Adekunle, Wasiu & Bekoe, William & Badmus, Sheriff & Anagun, Michael & Alimi, Wasiu, 2021. "Nexus Between Fiscal Discipline And The Budget Process In Africa: Evidence From Nigeria," MPRA Paper 110061, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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. Serhan ÇIFTÇIOĞLU & Amin SOKHANVAR, 2018. "External Debt- Economic Growth Nexus in Selected CEE Countries," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(4), pages 85-100, December.
    2. Mencinger, Jernej & Verbic, Miroslav & Aristovnik, Aleksander, 2015. "Revisiting the role of public debt in economic growth: The case of OECD countries," MPRA Paper 67704, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Wamboye, Evelyn, 2012. "External debt, trade and FDI on economic growth of least developed countries," MPRA Paper 39031, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Saungweme, Talknice & Odhiambo, Nicholas M., 2020. "The Impact of Domestic and Foreign Public Debt on Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from Zimbabwe," Economia Internazionale / International Economics, Camera di Commercio Industria Artigianato Agricoltura di Genova, vol. 73(1), pages 77-106.
    5. Talknice Saungweme & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2019. "Does Public Debt Impact Economic Growth in Zambia? An Ardl-Bounds Testing Approach," SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, University of Piraeus, vol. 69(4), pages 53-73, October-D.
    6. Haytham Y.M. Ewaida, 2017. "The Impact of Sovereign Debt on Growth: An Empirical Study on GIIPS versus JUUSD Countries," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(2A), pages 607-633.
    7. SAUNGWEME, Talknice & ODHIAMBO, Nicholas M., 2018. "Public Debt Service And Economic Growth: A Survey Of International Literature," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 18(2), pages 129-142.
    8. Taner Turan & Halit Yanıkkaya, 2021. "External debt, growth and investment for developing countries: some evidence for the debt overhang hypothesis," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 20(3), pages 319-341, September.
    9. repec:eco:journ1:2014-02-19 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Mijiyawa, Abdoul’ Ganiou, 2024. "Does private share of public external debt support economic growth in developing countries?," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    11. Naeem AKRAM*, 2017. "Role of Public Debt in Economic Growth of Sri Lanka: An ARDL Approach," Pakistan Journal of Applied Economics, Applied Economics Research Centre, vol. 27(2), pages 189-212.
    12. Imbs, Jean & Ranciere, Romain, 2005. "The overhang hangover," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3673, The World Bank.
    13. Andrea F Presbitero, 2012. "Total Public Debt and Growth in Developing Countries," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 24(4), pages 606-626, September.
    14. Drine, Imed & Nabi, M. Sami, 2010. "Public external debt, informality and production efficiency in developing countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 487-495, March.
    15. Stylianou Tasos, 2012. "Does Government Debt Promote Economic Growth? An Empirical Analysis with Structural Breaks for the Economy of China," Romanian Economic Journal, Department of International Business and Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest, vol. 15(45), pages 229-248, December.
    16. Kashif Munir & Nisma Riffat Mehmood, 2018. "Exploring the Channels and Impact of Debt on Economic Growth," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 19(2), pages 171-191, September.
    17. Presbitero, Andrea F., 2008. "The Debt-Growth Nexus in Poor Countries: A Reassessment," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 2, pages 1-28.
    18. Taha Zaghdoudi, 2020. "Threshold Effect in the Relationship Between External Debt and Economic Growth: A Dynamic Panel Threshold Specification," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 18(2), pages 447-456, June.
    19. Saungweme Talknice & Odhiambo Nicholas M., 2019. "Does Public Debt Service Expenditure Crowd-Out Economic Growth? Empirical Evidence from an African Developing Country," Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Oeconomica, Sciendo, vol. 64(3), pages 23-38, December.
    20. Scott Regifère MOUANDAT, 2021. "dette optimale au Gabon," Journal of Academic Finance, RED research unit, university of Gabes, Tunisia, vol. 12(1), pages 132-149, June.
    21. Siyan Chen & Saul Desiderio, 2018. "Long-run consequences of debt," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 13(2), pages 365-383, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    External debt; Economic growth; Domestic investment; and Threshold analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C24 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Truncated and Censored Models; Switching Regression Models; Threshold Regression Models
    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • F21 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Investment; Long-Term Capital Movements

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:pra:mprapa:99975. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.