EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE ON THE IMPACT OF TRADE OPENNESS ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Global decline in environmental quality has been an issue of concern among researchers. Prominent factors identified in connection with this include industrialization, population growth, pollution, agricultural activities and increased global trade. This study, therefore, investigated the impact of trade openness on environmental quality in Nigeria using time series data from 1980 to 2021. The Phillip-Perron (PP) unit root test was used to establish the stationarity properties of the data while the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL)/Bound test for cointegration showed that there exists a short run relationship between trade openness and environmental quality. Findings support the postulation that trade openness leads to Nigeria being a pollution haven for the industrialized countries of the world, while agricultural activities have insignificant effect on environmental quality in Nigeria. The study, therefore, concludes that trade openness does not contribute significantly to decline in environmental quality in Nigeria. It is recommended that Nigeria should strengthen her trade and environmental policies to avoid being a dumping ground for the industrialized countries.