 Oil, Growth and Governance in NigeriaPaul Collier Chapter 2 in Economic Policy Options for a Prosperous Nigeria, 2008, pp 45-59 from Palgrave Macmillan Abstract: Abstract Oil revenues are the single most important feature of the Nigerian economy. They constitute an enormous opportunity for growth. As is evident, over the entire period since they commenced, this opportunity has not been realized. At times of high oil prices the revenue has enabled both ordinary citizens and the state to achieve higher levels of consumption, but these levels have not proved sustainable: windfalls have not been converted into permanently higher levels of income. The disastrous failure of the previous oil boom of 1974–86 is often misunderstood in Nigeria. During the boom, consumption, both public and private, was high, and so living standards were temporarily high. The catastrophic failure of public policy was that the windfall was not transformed into a higher level of sustainable consumption. Indeed, on the contrary, policy during the windfall ensured that future consumption would be lower. This was because during the boom, instead of investing in productive assets, the government borrowed very heavily to finance consumption. Keywords: Central Bank; Real Exchange Rate; Foreign Asset; Domestic Investment; Electoral Competition (search for similar items in EconPapers) There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-58319-1_3 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan |
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