External Shocks, Institutional Quality, and Macroeconomic Performance in Nigeria

The study examines the relative contributions of external shocks and institutional quality to macroeconomic performance in Nigeria, using Structural Vector Autoregressive (SVAR) approach. The study establishes the dominance of the relative contributions of external shocks measures over institutional quality to macroeconomic performance in the country. Even though the dominance of terms of trade and foreign aid is highlighted, the role of institutional quality is equally important as it also has significant positive effect on performance. The study concludes that both external shocks and institutional quality play significant roles, and hence, posits the existence of favorable institutional environments as a panacea to successfully absorbing the influence of external shocks which are exogenous to the economy.