Government expenditures in Nigeria: Re-examination of Wagner’s law

Abstract. Nigerian data covering 1981 to 2018 were applied to affirm Wagner’s law with respect to the five different models. The significance of this paper is to establish whether there exists a relationship between total government expenditures and the Nigerian economy. To accomplish the objective of this paper, data were sourced from the Central Bank of Nigeria statistical bulletin of various years. Several statistical and econometric tests were conducted. The results obtained revealed that there exists positive and statistical significance as well as a long-run relationship between the variables employed in the various models and that Wagner’s law was held to exist in the Nigerian economy in the timeframe of the study. It is therefore, recommended that the Nigerian government should improve her sources of income in order to satisfy the increasing demand of her people now and in the future.Keywords. Wagner’s law, Total government expenditures, Real GDP.JEL. H11, H50, C13, C22