Acta Universitatis Danubius. Œconomica, Vol 12, No 2 (2016)

Abstract

Objective: This study aims at examining the impact of macroeconomic policies on unemployment and poverty rates in Nigeria from 1980 to 2013 with implication to achieving inclusive growth. The inability of macroeconomic policies in addressing the rising issues unemployment and poverty rates in Nigeria despite the impressive economic growth experience over the last decades has increasingly called for the need for the pursuance of inclusive growth to address the social issues of unemployment and poverty rate.

Prior Work: Previous studies as discussed in the literature review have not considered the extent to which macroeconomic policies affects unemployment and poverty rate in Nigeria, and the implication of this relationship to the attainment of inclusive growth in Nigeria.

Approach: The study adopts the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) technique.

Results: The study observed that among macroeconomic policy variables only exchange rate significantly influenced unemployment rate while only fiscal policy significantly influenced and poverty rate.

Implications: This implies that present macroeconomic policies in Nigeria do not guarantee the attainment of inclusive growth in Nigeria.

Values: The contribution of the paper is that to achieve inclusive growth that guarantees high employment and reduced poverty rate, there is the need for a re-examination of macroeconomic policies.