TITLE:
Does Trade Openness Matter for Economic Growth in Niger?
AUTHORS:
Badamassi Aboubacar, Deyi Xu, Amadou Maiga Ousseini
KEYWORDS:
Trade Openness, Economic Growth Rate, Time Series, Niger
JOURNAL NAME:
Theoretical Economics Letters,
Vol.4 No.9,
December
31,
2014
ABSTRACT: The trade openness is
one of the most important determinants of a country’s relative level of economic
health. It plays a vital role for most free market economies in the world. This
research is an attempt to investigate,
particularly, the impact of the trade openness on the economic growth in Niger;
and generally, the relationship between all the variables under study. Four (4)
variables namely real economic growth rate represented by real gross domestic
product growth rate (GDPGR), trade openness (TRDOP), real exchange rate (REEXR)
and foreign direct investment (FDI) have been considered in the model. The
paper used time series data covering the period from 1980 to 2013 as well as
time series methods for the econometric analyses. The results show that there
exists a long term relationship between all the variables; the independent
variables affects the economic growth in the short-run; only the trade openness
and the real exchange rate influence economic growth unidirectionally; except
foreign direct investment (FDI), all the variables have explanatory power on
economic growth in Niger. The implication of this study is that the trade
openness has been efficient to spur the economic growth in Niger over the
period of study. Therefore, it is a key indicator which the government should
care about.