A Review of the Unemployment - Economic Growth Nexus in Nigeria from 1980 to 2015: A Disaggregated Approach

The phenomenon of jobless growth in Nigeria in recent years has called to question the Okun’s law that the growth of gross domestic product (GDP) reduces unemployment. This study therefore, analyses the nexus between GDP growth and unemployment in Nigeria by disaggregating total output into its sectoral components to analyze the impact of sectoral output on unemployment using data from 1980 to-2015 employing the econometric technique of Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound testing approach. Two ARDL models were specified. The first bound test revealed the existence of co integration between unemployment and GDP growth. The growth of GDP is positively related to unemployment in the long run but a negative relationship was found in the short run. The result of the disaggregated model (i.e the second ARDL model) found no long run relationship between unemployment and agriculture, industry, construction, trade, and services. We opined that the findings of the disaggregated model resulted from the disconnection between aggregate demand and aggregate supply of the productive sectors and the lack of direct linkages between the oil sector and other sectors of the economy. The study recommends that such linkages should be forged through enhanced funding of research and development, technological innovation and the development of value chain of agriculture and solid minerals output. Nigerians should be encouraged to consume locally made products. Efforts should be intensified to develop direct linkages between the oil sector and other sectors through input supply contracts and the development of downstream industries in the oil sector.

Modelling the Global Prevalence of COVID-19: An Econometric Approach

Nearly all economies of the world suffered from the sudden outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic emanating from Wuhan City of China to the rest of the world. A number of studies have been conducted to investigate the drivers of the spread of the viral infection. We differ from existing studies by employing a cross-sectional quantile regression approach to uncover socio-economic conditions that are instrumental in the spread of COVID-19 in Africa, Asia, America and Europe. Across the continents, we observed that life expectancy, the size of the aged population and spending on the health sector have significant impacts on the spread of COVID-19. We also noted the specific roles of out-of-pocket spending, net migration and tourism attraction for Africa, America and Europe, respectively, in driving the viral spread. We therefore draw policy implications in terms of the need for improved spending on health sector across continents and the need to intensify health checks for travelers and immigrants, and also the need to emphasize regular check-ups for all individuals across continents since current realities have shown that no age-group is spared of contracting the viral infection.

Corporate Board Diversity and Financial Performance: The Nigerian Insurance Sector’s Perspective

The presence of appropriate gender diversity, board size and board composition does not only promote favourable organizational ambience but also offers meaningful upsurge in the financial position of an organization relatively. It is on this premise that prompted the essence to examine the relationship between corporate board diversity and financial performance of insurance companies in Nigeria for the period 2014 to 2018. Secondary data from Cornerstone Insurance Plc. and Lasaco Assurance Plc. were employed in the study. Using the Panel least Square regression technique, the results reveal that gender diversity, board size and board composition exert insignificant influence on profit before tax as the measure of financial performance. However, while gender diversity exerts negative influence, board size and board composition exert positive influences on profit before tax of insurance companies. The study concludes that employment of appropriate number of directors and also in suitable composition as board members have positive effect on the financial performance of insurance firms. Therefore, the study recommended among others, that: appropriate ratio of executive to independent non-executive directors should be maintained among board members for better decision-making at the interest of all stakeholders. Also, the ratio of gender diversity (female to male directors) should be increased as the role of women in resource management cannot be relegated to the background especially in financial performance of insurance companies.