The paper investigates the impact of infrastructural development on agricultural value chain in Nigeria and finds that infrastructural development has a significant positive impact on the agricultural value chain in the long as well as short run. The macroeconomic instability, on the other hand, exerts the opposite impact. A comprehensive policy framework is required to enhance agricultural value chain output and promote investment in human and physical capital while carefully managing macroeconomic instability and distortions. Governments at all levels should prioritize infrastructural development to optimize the benefits from the agricultural value chain. Keywords Agricultural value chain, ordinary least squares (OLS), dynamic OLS, fully modified OLS, infrastructural development, Nigeria JEL codes H54, O13, Q18 * indicates lag order selected by the criterion Authors' computations

PurposeThis paper examines the impact of fiscal constraints on education expenditure in Nigeria from 1981 to 2021, using annual time series data.Design/methodology/approachThe study deployed cointegration techniques with structural breaks.FindingsCointegration was found between education expenditure, debt servicing (a proxy for fiscal constraint) and associated variables. In both the long and short run, debt servicing negatively and significantly impacts education expenditure. While government revenue has a positive and significant impact on education expenditure in the long and short run, political institution has a negative and significant impact in the long run. Political institution is thus critical to education financing in Nigeria. The impact of debt is positive and significant in the short run, but not significant in the long run. There is a unidirectional causality from debt servicing to education expenditure.Practical implicationsPolitical institutions are critical towards contracting only productive debts and checkmating the adverse political environment through political will that prioritizes education financing.Originality/valueThe study extends the empirical literature on the fiscal constraint-education expenditure first by investigating fiscal constraint-education expenditure nexus given the institutional environment, and second by extending the methodology using cointegration techniques in the midst of structural breaks.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-10-2022-0682.

The objective of the paper was to investigate macroeconomic policy and agricultural value chain in Nigeria. The period covered is 1981–2016. The analysis is based on the autoregressive distributed lag framework. A long-run equilibrium relationship was found among the variables used in the investigation. Government expenditure and broad money supply (the macroeconomic policy variables used) were found to have significant positive impact on the agricultural value chain. Energy was found to also have a direct statistically significant impact on agricultural value chain. Based on the results, it is recommended that there should be an enabling macroeconomic policy framework, which gives emphasis to improved budgetary allocation to the agricultural sector, increases money supply, and promotes agencies that can directly impact the level of finance to agricultural value chain related businesses in Nigeria. Above all, electricity supply should be enhanced.

In this study, a sample of the largest economies in Africa is used to investigate the impact of free trade on export competitiveness, using panel data econometric techniques on data covering 2000 through 2018. Results from the Pooled Ordinary Least Squares regression and reinforced by the Fixed Effect Model show that the significant positive determinants of export competitiveness are openness, exchange rate, ICT-related infrastructure and the rule of law, whereas corruption and foreign direct investment are significant constraints. Although tariff was found to be positively related to export competitiveness, it is not a significant driver. It is recommended that African countries should initiate and promote policies that enhance the quality and quantity of infrastructure, its institutional environment (encompassing the rule of law and the capacity to address corruption), including attracting the right kind of foreign direct investment that facilitates the utilization of its vast natural resources and transfers suitable technology. JEL Classification Codes: F10, F15, R10

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