THE CROWDING-OUT EFFECT OF FISCAL POLICY ON CAPITAL INFLOWS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigated the effect of fiscal policy on crowding out capital inflows in Nigeria using annual data between 1970 and 2011 by using the foreign direct investment (FDI) as proxy to capital inflows represent the dependent variable, budget deficit (BD), foreign borrowing (FL) and domestic borrowing (DL) as proxies to fiscal policy are placed as explanatory variables. Cointegration and ECM technique were employed. Our finding showed that in both the short and long run, BD does not crowd out but rather crowd in FDI. In the short run, DL averagely has significant positive impact on FDI. However, in the long run, DL has significant negative impact on FDI. More so, in both short run and long run period, FL has significant negative impact on FDI, therefore, FL crowds out FDI. The speed of adjustment back to equilibrium showed that the explanatory variables have capacity to adjust FDI significantly. The study recommends that the government could try to be aware of the implication of its fiscal policy in running a budget deficit and making proper decision in sourcing for funds to finance the deficit. Foreign borrowing is less expensive in financing budget deficit, so if the government must borrow, it should give preference to this source. Generally, the government should reduce deficit because of the implications inherent in it.