Annals of the Social Science Academy of Nigeria 21(1) 2016/17 DOI: 10.36108/ssan/171602.12.0120
Is Growth Immiserizing in Nigeria?
Musibau Adetunji Babatunde & T. Ademola Oyejidee
Abstract
Nigeria has experienced quite significant growth over the past one decade, but the incidence of poverty has also increased suggesting that the growth is immiserizing. The immiserizing nature of the growth was supported by the estimates from the growth elasticity of poverty, the employment elasticity of growth and the quality of the growth spells. The determinants of immiserizing growth cut across economic, social, political and institutional factors that include dysfunctional behaviour, structure of the economy, rising inequality and resource misallocation. However, this does not imply that, at the margin, economic growth is not beneficial to the poor. The simple point is that there are many other factors other than economic growth that help explain the weak or missing linkages between macro-economic growth and household incomes. Domestic policies are necessary to reduce the various constraints inherent in the economy that makes growth immiserizing.
Keywords: Poverty, Economic growth, Inequality, Elasticity, Nigeria