




































Economy 
ISSN : 2313-8181 
Vol. 2, No. 3, 49-57, 2015 
www.asianonlinejournals.com/index.php/Economy 

 

 

* Corresponding Author 

 

 

49 

 

The Relative Impact of Money Supply and Government 

Expenditure on Economic Growth in Nigeria 
 

Peter Siyan
1
 --- Adewale Emmanuel Adegoriola

2* 

 
1,2

Department of Economics, University of Abuja, Nigeria 

 

Abstract 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License 

Asian Online Journal Publishing Group 

 

Contents 
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................................... 50 

2. Empirical Literature ................................................................................................................................................................. 50 

3. Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................................................................ 52 

4. Model Specification and Data Analysis ................................................................................................................................... 53 

5. Estimation Technique ............................................................................................................................................................... 54 

6. Empirical Results ...................................................................................................................................................................... 54 

7. Policy Recommendations .......................................................................................................................................................... 55 

References ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 55 

Appendix ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 56 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This study investigates the relative impact of money supply and government expenditure on economic 

growth in Nigeria. In order to achieve the objectives, we proposed and specified models with 

parameters, which were estimated and used to test the hypothesis on relative impact of money supply 

vis-à-vis government expenditure. The Beta Coefficients techniques and Two Stage Least Square were 

employed to analyze the data. The empirical result showed that the government expenditure is relatively 

more effective compared with money supply on economic activities. Government expenditure as a 

fiscal policy instrument is greater, more reliable (predictable) and faster than the use of money supply 

as a monetary policy instrument in stabilizing the economy. Since both government expenditure and 

money supply are policy instruments use to stabilize the economy, government should rely more on 

government expenditure than money supply. However, the combination and harmonization of both 

money supply and government expenditure are highly recommended. 
 

Keywords: Money supply, Government expenditure, Economic growth, Beta coefficient, Nigeria  

 

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/


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1. Introduction 
Macroeconomic policy management in Nigeria is dominated by monetary and fiscal policies. Other policies 

include income, prices, employment, trade, industrial etc. Money supply and government expenditure are two 

cardinal tools of monetary and fiscal policies respectively. Generally, both monetary and fiscal policies seek to 

achieve relative macroeconomic stability. The objectives of monetary and fiscal policies in Nigeria are wide-ranging. 

These include increase in gross domestic product (sustainable growth), reduction in the rate of inflation and 

unemployment, improvement in the balance of payment, accumulation of financial saving and external reserves as 

well as stability in exchange rate. 

Sustainable economic growth and development is undoubtedly one of the most challenging development issues 

in third world countries today. Even from the days of father of Economics, (Adams, 1992) the main focus of 

macroeconomic thinkers and policy makers is how to attain macroeconomic stability. In Nigeria, especially before 

the introduction of Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), there had been an undue emphasis on the use of fiscal 

policy at the expense of monetary policy which is frequently breached. It was in 1987, after SAP, that emphasis 

shifted to monetary policy following the deregulation of money market which prevents money becoming a major 

source of disturbance in the Nigeria economy. Today, fiscal and monetary policies are inextricably linked in 

macroeconomic management as development in one sector directly affects development in the other. 

Moreover, there is consensus among economists that monetary and fiscal policies jointly and individually affect 

the level of economic activities. The degree and relative superiority of one instrument over the other in achieving 

macroeconomic objectives has been subject of debates and controversies among policy makers and economists; 

tentative resolutions are attempted empirically for different countries and different periods and circumstances. The 

debates have been mainly between the monetarists and Keynesians. The monetarists led by Milton Friedman 

believed that money supply exerts greater impact on economic activities while the Keynesians economics led by 

John Maynard Keynes believed that government expenditure rather than money supply exerts greater influence on 

economic activities (Adefeso and Mobolaji, 2010). 

Money supply which affects output, income and prices as well as the balance of payments is therefore, the 

central piece of monetary tools and intermediate target of monetary policy. In theoretical terms, it is denoted as M1 or 

M2, narrow and broad definition of money respectively. Government expenditure is the main tool of fiscal policy. It 

can be financed from direct and indirect taxes, monetization of foreign exchange earnings, and domestic credit from 

the banking system including ways and means of advances by the central bank and borrowing from non-bank public. 

On the user’s side, disbursement of these funds could be informed by current or capital expenditure which is broken 

down further into smaller subheads. 

Since the late 1970s, fiscal policy has become a major instrument in Nigeria. The reason for this is the dominant 

role of the public sector in major economic activities in Nigeria. This can be traced to several factors among which is 

oil boom in early 1970s; the need for reconstruction after the civil war; the industrialization strategy adopted at the 

time (import substitution industrialization policy) and the militarization of governance. The other reason for the 

increasing dominance of fiscal policy in the management of the economy is the fall in the international price of oil in 

the late 1980s. Furthermore, the persistent fiscal deficit since the early 1970s and role of underwriting Central Bank 

of Nigeria (CBN) treasury securities to commercial agents as also influenced the dominance of fiscal actions. 

Government subsequently opted for discount houses which specialized agency focusing mainly on this function. 

Another cause of the declining local capacity utilization has the fierce competition from foreign firms under the 

spirit of liberalization which is a cardinal principle of SAP. Poor physical and economic infrastructure, despite the 

huge oil revenue the country has earned thus far, has made it difficult for indigenous firms to complete globally. 

Most indigenous firms are required to make capital investments in basic infrastructure like roads, securities, water 

and electricity. The result of such huge outlay is that the indigenous firms are greatly disadvantaged when competing 

in global markets. 

 

2. Empirical Literature 
Several studies have examined the effectiveness that fiscal policy and monetary policy. The argument about 

fiscal policy can be dated back to Keynesian times, which predicts that expansionary fiscal policy (increasing 

government expenditure or decreasing tax) will increase disposable income, and raise the private consumption. 

However, investment will be partially crowded out because of the increase in interest rate. Most of the empirical 

studies support this idea. Blanchard and Perotti (2002); Fatas and Mihov (2001) confirm the positive effect of 

government expenditure and revenue on consumption and output. 

However, many studies also show that fiscal policy can have Non-Keynesian effects. Government expenditure 

increase may lead to increase aggregate demand because government expenditure increase means tax cut, and people 

will expect increase in future income, thus, increase current consumption and aggregate demand. Giavazzi and 

Pagano (1990) provided empirical supports for this idea. According to the study of Denmark (1983-1986) and 

Ireland (1987-1989), they found that contractionary fiscal policy may have expansionary result.  

Many empirical studies examined the arguments; however they do not reach consensus result. Hutchison et al. 

(2010) showed that tightening monetary policy will significantly cause the reduction of output, and monetary 

expansion has no discernable effect. Goderis and Ioannidou (2008) and Kraay (2003) took some other factors into 

account. They studied the relationship between interest rate and exchange rate during currency crisis, controlling for 

national fundamental factor, short term bond yields, balance sheet and so on. They found that the most important 

factor is short term bond yield. When the short term bond yield level of a country is low, increasing interest rate will 

help defense exchange rate, this effect will decrease with the increasing short term bond yield. 

Keran (1970) cross-selected time series study based on data from seven developed countries outside USA. Keran 

found that money supply exert more influence on GDP than changes in government expenditure. Teigen (1973) 

applied the methodology to data from three Scandinavia countries, namely, Denmark, Finland and Norway to 

determine the relative effectiveness of money supply and government expenditure. In all the three countries studied, 



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it is observed that government expenditure dominates economic activities, even after transforming the data and used 

beta and elasticity coefficients. The results contradicted the earlier conclusions by Anderson and Jordan which was 

collaborated by that of Keran. 

In Lybeck and Teigen (1975) used Swedish data, the Anderson and Jordan methodology, quarterly changes in 

normal GDP were regressed on quarterly changes in money supply and government expenditure. Unlike the earlier 

results from the data on Denmark, Finland and Norway by Teigen, the findings with Swedish data showed 

inconclusive evidence as to which of the two policy instruments had stronger influence on GDP. The inconclusive of 

the result was linked to conflicting on the exogenous variables and autocorrelation. 

Friedman (1977) extended the original data of (1933-1968) used in the study of Anderson and Jordan (1968) to 

1976, his empirical research found that government expenditure becomes significant. Though, Carlson (1978) was of 

the opinion that Friedman (1977) was suffering from the problem of heteroscedastcity and suggested that the 

regression should be estimated in percentage first difference form. 

Batten and Hafer (1983) in an attempt to resolve the controversy on the impact of fiscal and monetary actions, 

they carried out empirical study outside United States on five developed countries namely: Japan, Canada, United 

kingdom, France and Germany using St. Lious equation and found that monetary policy exert greater impact on 

economic growth in these countries than the fiscal policy and equally that St. Louis can be applied to a variety of 

other countries. For example, the result of this study cannot be generalized for the developing countries since they 

have significantly different economic and political structures. 

Darrat (1984) investigates the relative influence of fiscal and monetary actions with in a modified St. Louis 

single-equation in 5 Latin American countries. The annual time series data was taken during the time period from 

1950 to 1981 of gross national product, money stock, government spending and exports are used. The results 

suggested that fiscal policy significantly lead monetary policy in explaining changes in nominal income.  

Chowdhury (1986) in his study of monetary and fiscal impact on economic activity in Bangladesh, he also made 

use of the ordinary least square (OLS) technique in his empirical investigation. He adopted St. Louis equation in 

estimating the monetary and fiscal variables; he was also of the opinion that fiscal rather than monetary actions had 

greater influence on economic activities.  

As Goldfajn and Gupta (1999) mentioned, when the economy encounters currency crisis together with banking 

crisis, the policy is not effective. Many banking crises, especially those in countries with fixed exchange rate turn out 

to be twin crises since currency depreciation exacerbating banking sector through foreign currency exposure of 

borrowers or banks. Kaminsky and Reinhart (1999) find that banking crises often precede balance-of-payment and 

the collapse of the currency deepens the banking crisis, activating a vicious spiral. Peso crisis in 1994 and Asian 

financial crisis are the examples of twin crisis. 

Taylor (2000) suggested that this may be due to the Fed executing a more aggressive and successful monetary 

policy since the 1980s, which may reduce the need for fiscal policy. To be sure, the data used contained few 

experiences with discretionary fiscal policy explicitly aimed at stabilizing the macro economy. Consequently, the 

results are only suggestive and should not be interpreted as an outright dismissal of fiscal policy. Furthermore, they 

emphasized the other important goals of tax and expenditure policy, namely to improve general equity and efficiency 

in the economy. And it would be most fortunate if fiscal policy could achieve these primary goals while also serving 

to stimulate a weak economy as a side effect. In terms of quick, easy-to-implement policies aimed at taming 

macroeconomic fluctuations, though, it appears that monetary policy reigns supreme.  

Snyder and Bruce (2005) used new evidence regarding the relative importance of monetary and fiscal policy for 

taming business cycles in the U.S. Using quarterly data from 1966 to 2000, estimated a series of error correction 

vector auto regressions to determine the predictive power of changes in tax rates, government spending, M2, and FFR 

in explaining movements in consumption, investment and GDP. Forecast error variance decompositions and impulse 

response functions support the relative importance of monetary policy.  

Ali et al. (2008) examined the effects of fiscal and monetary policies on economic growth by using annual time 

series data from 1990 to 2007 in case of South Asian countries. Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model has 

been used. Results indicated that money supply has significant and positive effect on economic growth in both short 

run as well as in long run, while fiscal policy has insignificant effect on economic growth both in the short run and 

long run. They concluded that monetary policy is a more powerful tool than fiscal policy enhancing the economic 

growth in case of South Asian countries.  

Yucel (2009) analysed the relationship among financial development, trade openness and economic growth in 

Turkish economy by using the monthly data from January 1989 to November 2007. The authors applied Johansen 

and Juselius technique to check the long run relationship between variables while employed Granger causality test to 

find the evidences of causality. The study found that trade openness is positively related with economic growth while 

financial development is negatively related with economic growth. Granger test found the evidences of bi-literal 

causality between financial development, trade openness and economic growth. 

Mohammad et al. (2009) examined the long run relationship among M2, inflation, government expenditure and 

economic growth in Pakistan by using annual time series data from 1977 to 2007. Co-integration results show that 

public expenditure and inflation has significant and negative effect while M2 has significant and positive effect on 

economic growth in the long run.  

Jawaid et al. (2010) investigated the comparative effect of fiscal and monetary policy on economic growth in 

Pakistan using annual time series data from 1981 to 2009. Co-integration test confirms positive long run relationship 

between monetary and fiscal policy with economic growth. However, monetary policy is found to be more effective 

than fiscal policy in enhancing the economic growth of Pakistan. They suggested that policy makers should focus 

more on monetary policy than fiscal policy to ensure economic growth however; the short run relationship should 

also have been checked. 

Khosravi and Karimi (2010) investigated the relationship between monetary, fiscal policy and economic growth 

in Iran. The annual time series data was taken from 1960 to 2006. Gross domestic product, narrow money (M1), 



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Government expenditures, exchange rates and consumer price index have been considered. Bound testing (ARDL) 

approach and co-integration were used. Results confirm that there exists co-integration relation between growth, 

monetary and fiscal policy. The results identify the effect of inflation and exchange rates on growth are negative, 

government expenditures have significant and positive effect on economic growth. It is suggested that the policy 

makers must have to diminish inflation rate and exchange rates to find the stability in the future.  

Taban (2010) re-investigated the government spending-economic growth nexus for the Turkish economy using 

bounds testing approach and MWALD Granger causality test by using the quarterly data from 1987:Q1 to 2006:Q4. 

Results show that share of total government spending and the share of government investment to GDP have 

significant and negative effect on growth of real per capita in the long run. On the other hand, government 

consumption spending to GDP ratio has insignificant effect on per capita output growth. Results also show that there 

is bi-directional causality between government spending and economic growth, uni-directional relationship running 

from per capita output growth to government investment to GDP ratio.  

Jie and Tang (2010) studied the effectiveness of fiscal and monetary policy responses to 72 episodes of twin 

crisis during 1977 to 2010. It found that monetary expansion measures contribute to reduce the output losses 

associated with twin crises. However, expansionary and contractionary policies have no discernable effects on twin 

crises, neither is contractionary monetary policy. Comparing with the policy effectiveness on single crisis, banking 

crisis and currency crisis separately, it was found only monetary expansion help reduce the output losses associated 

with banking crisis. Monetary policy has no discernable effect on currency crisis. And fiscal policy, expansionary or 

contractionary, has no effect on banking and currency crisis either. 

Looking at specific studies on the relative effectiveness of both monetary and fiscal policy in Nigeria, for 

example, Ajayi (1974) maintained that much reliance have been placed on the use of fiscal policy rather than 

monetary policy. He used data from 1960-1970 in Nigeria. In his study, he estimated the variables of fiscal and 

monetary policies using Ordinary Least Square technique. His result was in line with that of Anderson and Jordan 

(1968) which revealed that monetary actions are much larger and more predicable than fiscal action. This result was 

confirmed with the use of beta coefficients that changes in monetary action were greater than that of fiscal action. In 

essence, greater reliance should be placed on monetary actions. 

Ubogu (1985) used 15 African countries including Nigeria. In his study, three variables were involved: GDP was 

regressed on differences of money supply (M1) and total government expenditure (G). Time series data spanning 17 

years were obtained from them; first and second differences were calculated and applied to obtained regression 

estimates like in the early studies, beta coefficients of the monetary and fiscal instruments were computed for direct 

comparison of the impact coefficients. The result indicated non-existence of serial correlation in the data. Moreover, 

chow test confirms the structural stability of the model. On the basics of findings, Ubogu recommended the need for 

policy tool for purpose of selecting the correct stabilization instruments. 

Olaloye and Ikhide (1995) in their study of the role of fiscal and monetary policies in a depressed economy, a 

case study of Nigeria estimated a slightly modified form of St. Louis equation. Data from 1986-1991 was employed, 

the analysis of their results showed that fiscal policy exerts more influence on the economy than monetary policy. 

The result, therefore, suggests that fiscal policy have been more effective in Nigeria at least in the period of 

depression. They are however, of the opinion that government expenditure will be an appropriate measure of fiscal 

policy. 

Asogu (1998) adopted the modified version of the St. Louis equation as in Batten and Hafer (1983) and provided 

estimates based on first differences and percentages changes of the data. The results also include the respective t–

ratios, beta elasticity coefficient to facilitate direct comparisons. The result of the estimate showed that coefficients 

of money supply were statistically significant while those of government expenditure were not significant. This 

agreed with the hypothesis that monetary actions are more potent than fiscal policy. However, coefficient of export is 

not significant and this confirmed earlier results by Ubogu (1985) such that exclusion of export variable in the earlier 

studies in Nigeria and that emphasis on fiscal action of the government has led to greater distortion in the economy. 

However, the study recommends that both policies should be complementary. 

Ajisafe and Folorunso (2002) investigated the relative effectiveness of monetary and fiscal policy on economic 

growth in the context of Nigeria using annual time series data during the year 1970 to 1998. M1 and M2 were used as 

proxies of money supply and government revenue, government expenditure and budget deficit as the proxies of fiscal 

policy. Result indicated that monetary policy has significant effect on economic growth rather than fiscal policy. 

However, the study recommended that both policies should be complementary. 

Adefeso and Mobolaji (2010) empirically examined the relative effectiveness of fiscal and monetary policy on 

economic growth in Nigeria. Annual time series data from 1970 – 2007 was employed. Error correction mechanism 

and co-integration technique was also used in the study. Gross domestic product, broad money, government 

expenditure and degree of openness have been used in the study. Results indicate that the effect of monetary policy 

on economic growth in Nigeria is much stronger than fiscal policy. They recommended that policy makers should 

emphasize on monetary policy for the purpose of economic stabilization in Nigeria. 

Ogunmuyiwa and Ekone (2010) investigated the relationship between money supply and economic growth in 

Nigeria by using the data for the period 1980-2006. The study employed OLS and Error correction mechanism in 

order to check the relationship while Granger causality test for checking the causality. The study found that 

economic growth is influenced by the level of money supply in the economy.  

 

3. Theoretical Framework 
The question of whether an expansion monetary policy (MP) or fiscal policy (FP) will help to raise output starts 

from the basic Keynesian model. In general, an increase in government expenditure or an increase in money supply 

will lead to an increase in output. Nevertheless, for many years, and to some extent and even now, there is the view 

that Keynesians ascribe that only fiscal policy (FP) can affect income and output, while monetarists believe that only 

monetary policy (MP) can have such an effect. It turns out, therefore, that in certain special cases, only FP works and 



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in another special case, only MP works. It has, however, been observed that only FP will work, and MP will not have 

any effect, if one of the links between changes in money supply and changes in investment is broken. The accounts 

of Keynesian theory concentrate on the liquidity trap as the extreme Keynesian special case. The important 

implication of the liquidity trap is that once the rate of interest has fallen to the level at which the liquidity trap 

occurs an increase in the money supply will not reduce the interest rate any further. Therefore if the level of 

investment which could occur at this minimum rate of interest is still not great enough to provide expenditure equal 

to full employment output, then MP will not be able to increase investment and thereby restore full employment and 

income by this route. 

However, in a liquidity trap, an increase in government expenditure will still increase output. In fact, as long as 

we remain in liquidity trap, an increase in government expenditure will have the full effect on income because 

interest rates do not rise at all and there is no crowding out of private investment to offset any of the effects of the 

increase in government expenditure. Hence, the support for the fiscal action of the government is to boost output. 

It follows therefore that the general theoretical framework accepted by Keynesians indicated that provided that 

the economy was not in a liquidity trap and provided that there was some sensitivity of investment to interest rates, 

monetary policy would affect output. This view is now accepted as the empirically relevant case. The converse case 

in which monetary policy can affect income while fiscal policy is powerless will also not occur in the general 

Keynesian model. This view referred to as the monetarists’ view is expressed by making reference to the "Quantity 

Theory of Money” as in equation 1 below: 

MV=PY ……………………………………………………………… 1 

Where M stands for money stock; V, velocity of circulation; P, an index of the price level and Y, the income. 

The right-hand side of equation 2 is the value of nominal income. It tells us that there is a one-to-one relationship 

between changes in the stock of money and changes in the values of national income. 

M=kPY ……………………………………………………………… 2 

If, in addition, as in the present context of our discussion of monetary and fiscal policy, we keep the price level 

(P) fixed, then the only way that Y can change is if M changes. The implication is that any other change, such as a 

change in government expenditure will not affect the level of real income. Hence fiscal policy must be powerless 

while monetary policy will affect real output. 

Considering equation 2 as a demand for money which is not dependent at all on interest rates, one has the idea 

that there is one, and only one, level of national income which would lead to a demand for money balance which is 

equal to the exogenously given money supply. This suggests that if there is an increase in one of the component of 

desired expenditure, such as government expenditure, what will happen is that there will be an access demand for 

funds which will drive up the interest rate in the finance markets. The process will only stop when enough 

investment has been crowded out by the rise interest rates so as to leave total expenditure back to its old level. 

The end result of the dynamic process is however clear from the model in equation 3 below: 

Y = C + I + G       ………………………………………….3                                                                  An increase 

in government expenditure will lead to drop in private investment of exactly the same magnitude leaving total 

expenditure and output unchanged. In terms of equation (3), the increase in G will be matched by a fall in I, and there 

is full crowding out. Hence fiscal policy cannot have any effect in the special case where the demand for money is 

completely insensitive to interest rate. Given the above discussion, the tendency now is for the monetarists to say that 

Keynesian believes only in fiscal policy (government expenditure) and for Keynesians to accuse monetarists of 

believing only monetary policy (money supply). The issue now is to determine which view is more relevant to the 

Nigerian economy. From the above theoretical framework, it is important to note that Jie and Tang (2010) theoretical 

framework will be applied in the model, using Ordinary Least Square (OLS) and Beta Coefficients technique. Gross 

domestic product (GDP), money supply and government expenditure will serve as variables respectively. 

 

4. Model Specification and Data Analysis 
On the basis of empirical studies, the model to examine will be divided into four. They are: the simultaneous 

equation model derived from Dike (1977) monetary block (model), fiscal block (model) and monetary and fiscal 

block (model) combined together. The simultaneous equation model is used to verify the stabilization effect of 

monetary and fiscal policy on output. The Monetary block is a model used to test the effect of monetary indicators 

like money supply and interest rate on gross domestic product, while the fiscal block is the model used to test the 

impact of fiscal indicators like government expenditure, tax revenue and budget deficit on gross domestic product. 

Monetary and fiscal block is used to test which of the policy instruments, money supply or government expenditure 

is more potent in Nigeria. Following Dike (1977) the changes in output is a function of multiplicity of factors 

including changes in aggregate government spending, government taxing actions, government monetary actions and 

changes in other variables that exogenously determined such as war spending, strikes, and whether, among others.  

Also borrowed from Jie and Tang (2010) “Monetary and fiscal models in twin crises”, general empirical models of 

three blocks showing the impact of monetary variables (money supply and interest rate), impact of fiscal variables 

(government expenditure, tax revenue and budget deficit) and impact of money supply and government expenditure 

on gross domestic product (GDP) were used.  

 

4.1. Econometric Models 

4.1.1. Simultaneous Model 
GDP = F (E, R, M, Z) ……………………………………………………..4  

Where: 

GDP = Gross Domestic Product 

E = Aggregate government expenditure  

R = Aggregate government taxing actions 

M = Aggregate government monetary actions 



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Z = Other factors (export revenue has been used for this study)  

 GDP = F   E,  R,  M,  Z)……………………………………………5 

In empirical terms, the following model was considered: 

 GDP = L1 E + L2 R + L3 M + L4 Z + Ut…………………………….6 

Where Ut is the error term of the model. 

Note that L1- L4 is estimated through the regression of the observed value of  GDP on the values of  E,  R,  M and 

 Z. 

And,  Z = a1 E + a2 R + a3 M + Ut……………………………………..7 

Equation four embodies the indirect effects partly in a1,a2, and a3 of the observed values of the independent 

variables on that of the dependent variable, while both the direct and the indirect effects are embodied in L1,L2 and 

L3. Using  M for example, the expression (b3 + a3 L4) is an estimate of L3, the total response of  GDP to  M. The 

direct response is b3, and the indirect response is a3 L4. Consequently, the equation estimated and reported in from the 

application of two-stage least square is: 

 GDP = (b1 + a1 L4) E + (b2 + a2 L4) R + (b3 + a3 L4) M + Ut……………..8 

 

4.1.2. Monetary Model 
GDP = α0 + α1M2 + α2INT + Ut……………………………………….......9 

GDP = Gross Domestic Product 

M2 = Broad Money Supply 

INT = Interest Rate  

α0,α1 & α2 = parameters 

Ut = Error term 

 

4.1.3. Fiscal Model 
GDP = β0 + β1GEX + β2TR + β3BDF + Ut………………………………10 

GEX = Government Expenditure 

TR = Tax Revenue 

BDF = Budget Deficit  

β0,β1, β2 & β3 = parameters 

Ut = Error term 

 

4.1.4. Monetary and Fiscal Model 
GDP = Ɵ0 + Ɵ1GEX + Ɵ2M2  +Ut ………………………………………….11 

Ɵ0,Ɵ1,Ɵ2,Ɵ3 &Ɵ4 = parameters 

Ut = Error term 

The rest of the variables have already been defined. 

 

5. Estimation Technique 
In other to find the relative impact of money supply and government expenditure on economic growth in Nigeria, 

beta coefficients were used. The data were tested for unit root (non-stationary by using Augmented Dickey Fuller 

ADF test. We analyzed the OLS regression results from the postulated models. Based on this, we tried the models 

specified and discovered that the double log (log-log) specification suits the data more in terms of tolerable level of 

multi co-linearity. 

 

6. Empirical Results 
Table 1 below presents summary of unit root test on the selected variables. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 

Government Expenditure (GEX), and Money Supply (MS) are stationary after second difference while Interest Rate 

(INT), Tax Revenue (TR) and Budget Deficit (BDF) are stationary after first difference. To adjudge whether a 

variable is stationary or not, the estimated Augmented Dickey-Fuller statistic is compared with its corresponding 

critical value at one percent level of significance. 

 
Table-1. Summary of Unit Root Test 

Variable  ADF-Statistic Critical  value Order of Integration 

GDP -9.284776 -3.632900 D (2) 

GEX -5.635828 -3.661661 D (2) 

MS -4.032535 -36389  D (2) 

TR -5.453102 -3.6171 D (1) 

INT -6.038279 -3.6171 D (1) 

BDF -14.44609 -3.615588 D (1) 
                  Source: Author’s Computation 

 

Table-2. Beta Coefficient: Relative Impact of Money Supply and Government Expenditure on Economic Growth. 

 
Dependent Variable: GDP 
Source: SPSS 17. 

 



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Findings from the Two Stage Least Squared estimates showed all the variables of the model got the right signs. 

Government spending has both positive direct and indirect effects on output. The effects of monetary policy and tax 

revenue on output are mixed. Whereas monetary policy has a positive indirect effect on output, its direct effect is 

negative on output. For tax revenue, negative effect indirectly runs on output, while direct effect on output is 

positive. While export though has positive impact but has insignificant influence on output. 

Monetary policy has more destabilizing effect on output than government expenditure because of the mixed 

effects of the former. Therefore, for stabilization purposes, fiscal policy (government expenditure) is greater, more 

reliable and faster than monetary policy (money supply).  

When only monetary policy is used to fine tune economic activities, broad money supply and interest rate do 

exact, separately, positive influence on the aggregate level of economic performance. However, broad money supply 

induces significant domestic economic progress than the interest rate variable. When these monetary variables are 

removed out of the equation of monetary policy, it implies absence of monetary policy in the management of the 

Nigerian economy. The general level of domestic economic performance will reduce, although insignificantly. 

Findings from the monetary policy model reveals that changes in the general level of domestic performance is 

significantly accounted for by changes in the level of monetary management. 

Findings from the fiscal policy model also reveals that the instrument of this policy are important determinants of 

the general level of domestic economic performance, as lack of fiscal policy measure in terms of budget 

implementation, and revenue generation leads to poor economic performance in Nigeria. On the separate effects of 

the variables, government expenditure and tax revenue positively influence the direction and level of the general 

domestic economic performance, while budget deficit on the other hand exact negative influence on economic 

growth. Apparently, only government expenditure appears to pass the test of statistical significance out of the three 

fiscal policy variables used. However, changes in GDP significantly affect changes in the entire fiscal policy 

variables used. This implies that budget policy and tax revenue can be combined with government expenditure to 

predict the part of growth of the economy.  

Plausibly, when both money supply and government expenditure are isolated from the equation of the domestic 

economic progress, positive growth could be recorded going by the findings of the combined fiscal and monetary 

policies model. Aggregate government expenditure and broad money supply exact the desired and expected positive 

effect on the growth of the economy taken the entire period of observation. Over the entire period of consideration, 

using Beta coefficients to test the relative impact of money supply and government expenditure on economic growth 

in Nigeria; government expenditure is more statistically significant than money supply. This finding supports the 

overwhelming role of money in an economy in facilitating both direct and indirect production activities and 

exchange. 

Other findings in the study revealed that reduction in interest rate does not enhance growth; increase in 

government spending does enhance growth while government expenditure exacts greater influence on the Nigerian 

economy than the money supply. 

 

7. Policy Recommendations 
From the findings of this study, the following recommendations became imperative: 

Since revenue generation does not translate into growth by itself, fiscal policy measures aim at stimulating economic 

growth by the government should be directed at increasing the level of government expenditure since this factor 

represents the actual production (and consumption) activities that the government is engaged in. This does not 

however suggest that budget deficit should be increased in excess of actual revenue generation as increasing budget 

deficit does not lead to growth in Nigeria as indicated or revealed by this study. 

Coordination of money supply and government expenditure imply, among others, fiat monetary restraint which 

should be matched with lower deficit spending. Where deficits must be, they should be strictly applied to productive 

ventures and not financed by Central bank. This means tilting the deficit budgeting to surplus budgeting or at worst 

balanced budget. This can be achieved through evolving an effective tax policy, adequate to beat tax evasions, 

avoidance and inequity. 

The growth rate of broad money supply should be appropriately managed by the Central Bank of Nigeria to 

induce sustainable economic growth, in order to prevent the negative consequences of  a continues increase in the 

growth rate of broad money stock arising from inflation and exchange rate volatility. 

Since both money supply and government expenditure are used to fine tune the economy to the desired part of 

growth, government should rely more on government expenditure than money supply in order to achieve rapid and 

sustainable economic growth.  

In the event of deficient aggregate demand that may be arising from financial debacle or turmoil, government 

should rely on fiscal measures to bring back the economy into the desired part of boom. This implies that 

government should rely on government expenditure during recession than its money supply counterpart. 

The role of budget deficit as an instrument of fiscal policy can be more effective for enhancing economic growth 

by eliminating corruption, leakages of resources and inappropriate use of resources. However, the combination and 

harmonization of both money supply and government expenditure are highly recommended. 

 

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Appendix 
 

Table-3. Regression Result for Monetary Policy Block 

Dependent Variable: GDP 

Method: Least Squares 

Date: 03/20/14   Time: 06:20 

Sample: 1970 – 2012 

Included observations: 43 

Variable Coefficient Std. Error t-Statistic Prob.   

MS 2.756915 0.114104 24.16138 0.0000 

INT 82851.07 47501.44 1.744180 0.0892 

C -352.7321 751.8096 -0.469177 0.6416 

R-squared 0.943496     Mean dependent var 4519.625 

Adjusted R-squared 0.940522     S.D. dependent var 7962.210 

S.E. of regression 1941.831     Akaike info criterion 18.05101 

Sum squared resid 1.43E+08     Schwarz criterion 18.17639 

Log likelihood -367.0456     Hannan-Quinn criter. 18.09666 

F-statistic 317.2594     Durbin-Watson stat 0.388169 

Prob(F-statistic) 0.000000    

 

 

 
 



Economy, 2015, 2(3): 49-57 

 

 

 

 

57 

 

          Table-4. Regression Result for Fiscal Policy Block 

Dependent Variable: GDP   

Method: Least Squares   

Date: 03/20/14   Time: 06:18   

Sample (adjusted): 1970 – 2012   

Included observations: 43  

Variable Coefficient Std. Error t-Statistic Prob.   

GEX 6.903259 1.667351 4.140256 0.0002 

TR 0.991074 3.547034 0.279409 0.7815 

BDF -0.333890 0.394487 -0.846390 0.4029 

C -179.8998 230.7853 -0.779511 0.4408 

R-squared 0.978711     Mean dependent var 4632.483 

Adjusted R-squared 0.976937     S.D. dependent var 8030.364 

S.E. of regression 1219.533     Akaike info criterion 17.14496 

Sum squared resid 53541392     Schwarz criterion 17.31385 

Log likelihood -338.8993     Hannan-Quinn criter. 17.20603 

F-statistic 551.6722     Durbin-Watson stat 1.035235 

Prob(F-statistic) 0.000000    

 
Table-5. Regression Result for  Monetary and Fiscal Policy Block 

Dependent Variable: GDP   

Method: Least Squares   

Date: 03/20/14   Time: 06:25   

Sample: 1970 – 2012   

Included observations: 43   

Variable Coefficient Std. Error t-Statistic Prob.   

GEX 0.340634 0.808994 0.421059 0.6762 

MS 4.508708 0.476768 9.456827 0.0000 

DGEX 12.02537 1.924542 6.248434 0.0000 

DMS -6.375405 0.804468 -7.924994 0.0000 

C 3.290192 124.9286 0.026337 0.9791 

R-squared 0.994347     Mean dependent var 4519.625 

Adjusted R-squared 0.993718     S.D. dependent var 7962.210 

S.E. of regression 631.0527     Akaike info criterion 15.84650 

Sum squared resid 14336188     Schwarz criterion 16.05548 

Log likelihood -319.8534     Hannan-Quinn criter. 15.92260 

F-statistic 1582.975     Durbin-Watson stat 1.237483 

Prob(F-statistic) 0.000000    

 
          Table-6. Unit Root Test 

Null Hypothesis: D(BDF) has a unit root  

Exogenous: Constant   

Lag Length: 0 (Automatic - based on SIC, maxlag=9) 

   t-Statistic   Prob.* 

Augmented Dickey-Fuller test statistic -14.44609  0.0000 

Test critical values: 1% level  -3.615588  

 5% level  -2.941145  

 10% level  -2.609066  

*Mackinnon (1996) one-sided p-values. 
 

 
Table-7. Augmented Dickey-Fuller Test Equation  

Dependent Variable: D(BDF,2)   

Method: Least Squares   

Date: 04/30/12   Time: 03:33   

Sample (adjusted): 1972 – 2011   

Included observations: 39 after adjustments  

Variable Coefficient Std. Error t-Statistic Prob.   

D(BDF(-1)) -1.740419 0.120477 -14.44609 0.0000 

C 51.21001 120.1112 0.426355 0.6724 

R-squared 0.852875     Mean dependent var 38.92632 

Adjusted R-squared 0.848788     S.D. dependent var 1904.019 

S.E. of regression 740.3966     Akaike info criterion 16.10344 

Sum squared resid 19734735     Schwarz criterion 16.18963 

Log likelihood -303.9655     Hannan-Quinn criter. 16.13411 

F-statistic 208.6896     Durbin-Watson stat 2.198061 

Prob(F-statistic) 0.000000    

 

 

 
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