Does Globalization Lead to Increased Poverty in Africa? Empirical Evidence from Nigeria

In the last two decades, with increasing globalization, many developing countries have seen severe financial crises, as well as sharp increases in unemployment and poverty in the short run. this article aims at investigating the empirical relationship between globalization and poverty based on nigerian data spanning the period between 1980 and 2001. Using multiple and log-inverse regressions based on average yearly GDP per capita, trade openness and financial openness, we find evidence that trade openness has a significant adverse impact on poverty, whereas, financial openness has a positive effect. Evidence further suggests that the positive effect of financial openness is not strong enough to offset the negative effect of trade openness. Keywords: globalization, poverty, economic growth.