Abstract

The current study examined the effects of fiscal policy and governance on the rise in productivity in Nigeria from 1981 to 2022 using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) methodology in combination with other econometric methodologies. Government recurrent spending has a significant short-term impact on productivity growth, but no long-term consequences, as the ARDL studies showed. It was found that the effectiveness of the administration has a slight but beneficial influence on the increase of Nigeria's productivity. Additionally, the study demonstrated that efforts to fight corruption had no appreciable effect on productivity gains. Productivity growth and tax revenue have a negative short-term correlation but a favorable long-term correlation. It was established that there was a slight reverse link between government capital spending and productivity growth. In light of these findings, the report recommends that the government should strengthen institutions to combat corruption and financial mismanagement in the nation and enact strict and effective fiscal policies to increase capital spending.