Economic openness, institutional quality and per capita income: Evidence from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18559/ref.2022.2.3

Keywords:

FDI inflows, openness of the economy, regulatory quality, institutional quality

Abstract

The controversy surrounding the actual impact of institutional quality and economic openness on economic growth is among the motivating factors for this study. The study seeks to investi- gate this relationship in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) by using the panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) test with annual series covering the period from 2000 to 2020. Findings indicate that in the short-run, regulatory quality and FDI outflows had an adverse impact on the economic performance of the ECOWAS bloc. Furthermore, the long-run results show that trade openness, political stability and FDI outflows had an adverse impact on the economy of the bloc, while regulatory quality positively affected the economy. Consequently, the paper recommends that member countries in the ECOWAS bloc should put in place effective regulatory framework in the short and medium term to attract FDI inflows, while building a strong and stable political environment in the long term.

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Author Biographies

Innocent Chile Nzeh, Renaissance University, Nigeria

Renaissance University, Nigeria

Hycenth Oguejiofoalu Richard Ogwuru, Novena University, Nigeria

Novena University, Nigeria

David Ogomegbunam Okolie, Renaissance University, Nigeria

Nigeria

Jonathan Ibekwe Okolie, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Nigeria

Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Nigeria

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Published

2023-02-17 — Updated on 2023-02-20

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How to Cite

Nzeh, I. C., Ogwuru, H. O. R., Okolie, D. O., & Okolie, J. I. (2023). Economic openness, institutional quality and per capita income: Evidence from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Research Papers in Economics and Finance, 6(2), 50–67. https://doi.org/10.18559/ref.2022.2.3 (Original work published February 17, 2023)

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