Department of Economics, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria; Economic Development Division, Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), Ibadan, Nigeria
Adewuyi, A.O., Department of Economics, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria; Akpokodje, G., Economic Development Division, Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), Ibadan, Nigeria
This study examines the impact of trade liberalization on Nigeria's trade flow. It covers the period from 1973 to 2006 and employs the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) techniques. Results reveal among other findings that all categories of export except oil perform better during the trade liberalization period than before the trade liberalization period. Further analysis suggests that while the impact is significant enough to produce positive growth of manufactured exports, it is not so in the case of agricultural and aggregate non-oil exports. The results indicate that all categories of import experience improved performance during trade liberalization compared to the preliberalization period. However, the result suggests that in most cases the impact is not strong enough to turn the mean growth of imports positive. The study concludes that trade liberalization has not produced an impact that is significant enough to boost Nigeria's trade flows.