Financial Market Structure and Economic Growth: Evidence from Nigeria Data

In this paper, we investigate both the long run and short run relationships between financial structure and economic growth using time series data. The presence of a unit root in the time series data was tested using Augmented Dickey – Fuller and Philips – Perron tests. The long run relationship among the variables is estimated using Johansen and Juselius (1990) maximum likelihood procedure. While the vector error correction model is used to estimate short run the dynamic coefficients. The main results reveal that financial market structure has a negative and significant effect on economic growth based on Nigeria data. This suggests a low level of development of the country’s financial sector. The paper therefore recommends that there is a need to put appropriate financial policies in place that will encourage the growth per capita GDP.