The volume of public expenditure has been on the rise especially in the developing economies and this has renewed the argument among economists on the validity of Wagner's law. Whereas for Keynes, the increase is needed to stimulate aggregate demand for economic growth to take place, Wagner opine that public expenditure is a consequence rather than cause of national productivity hence; it plays no role in the growth of an economy. For the West African Economies, which of these economic concepts prevails? This study seeks to determine the validity of these theories in the sixteen countries that make up West African region using a panel analysis. The result reveals that, first, there is a bidirectional effect or relationship between government spending and economic growth in five West African countries, unidirectional causality flowing from government expenditure to economic growth in four countries, while unidirectional causality from economic growth to government expenditure were in two countries. However, there were no causal relationship between government expenditure and economic growth in the remaining five countries in West Africa. Secondly, using different versions of Wagner's law, we observed that only Goffman version is truly validated in the West African economies given the value of more than one per cent marginal effect of per capita growth on expenditure. Therefore, for the countries that respond to Keynes theory, there is need for appropriate policies with respect to government spending knowing that it affects the level of growth.

This study investigated the impact of electricity supply on manufacturing output in Nigeria using data from 1980 to 2019. By augmenting the endogenous growth model production function with key variables affecting manufacturing sector output, such as exchange rate and technology, which previous studies failed to capture. The result of the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model revealed that electricity supply has a negative and insignificant relationship with the manufacturing sector output. Conversely, technology has a positive and significant relationship with manufacturing sector output in the short run. Thus, it was recommended that an adequate and stable supply of electricity and deploying modern technology should be on the front burner of the country's development policy. This steady supply will not only enhance the growth of the manufacturing sector but also lead to inclusive growth in terms of reducing poverty and unemployment in the Nigerian economy and promoting rapid economic growth.