Effects of Oil Price, External Debt and Population on the Government Investment in Syria

This study attempts to investigate the effect of oil price, external debt and population on the government investment in Syria over the period 1970-2010. The Johansen cointegration test showed that oil price, external debt and population have a positive and significant long run relationship with government investment. The Granger causality test indicates bidirectional long-run causality relationships between oil price, external debt, population, and government investment. There are also unidirectional short-run causality relationships running from oil price and population to government investment, and bidirectional short-run causality relationship between external debt and government investment. The study result indicates that, external debt have the biggest effect on the government investment, as well as oil price and population can play an important role in supporting the government investment in the country