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In Nigeria, the government activities vis-à-vis public expenditure has grown rapidly both in absolute, relative and as a share of GDP over the years. These growths in government expenditure have been due to certain factors which are believed to have significant effect on the fiscal operation of the country. These perceived implications of government expenditure expansion on the economy necessitate the need to understand factors that are responsible for the growth in government expenditure size. For that, the study employs a slightly modified version of Wagner's law by incorporating new variables such as oil revenue, trade openness, public debt, exchange rate, oil price, taxation and inflation-to examine their effect on government expenditure size. The study uses time series data for Nigeria spanning between 1970 and 2017. Time series data were analysed using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model. The findings of the study reveal that oil revenue, GDP, population, trade openness, oil price, taxation and inflation are important determinants of the size of Nigeria's government expenditure. The study recommends among others that the revenue base of the country should be diversified beyond oil sector, strengthening of fiscal and monetary policies to ensure stability in price level and exchange rate, the use of fiscal rule through excess crude oil account should also be strengthened to create buffer against fluctuation in oil price and as well appropriate population reduction policies should be undertaken to curtail rapid population growth.

Chapter 1: Introduction -- Chapter 2: Towards a Theory of Inflation in Underdeveloped Economies -- Chapter 3: Plantations and Rise of the Merchant cum Usurer Class during British Rule in Sri Lanka -- Chapter 4: Research Methodology -- Chapter 5: Results and Discussion -- Chapter 6: Pattern of Capital Formation, Surplus Labour and Inflation: Historical Evidence.

This study investigates the impact of Nigerian government expenditure (disaggregated into capital and recurrent) on economic growth using time series data for the period 1970-2019. The paper employs Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model. To ensure robustness of results, the study accounts for structural breaks in the unit root test and the co-integration analysis. The key findings of the study are that capital expenditure has positive and significant impact on economic growth both in the short run and long run while recurrent expenditure does not have significant impact on economic growth both in the short run and long run. The study recommends that government should increase the share of the capital expenditure especially on meaningful projects that have direct bearing on the citizen's welfare. Government should also improve the spending patterns of recurrent expenditure through careful reallocation of resources toward productive activities that would enhance human development in the country.