Does Trade Liberalization Affect Energy Saving in Nigeria?

The study empirically examines the role of trade openness and other determinants in explaining the intensity of energy use in Nigeria using annual data from 1981 to 2015. The paper uses an auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) model in interpreting both long-run energy intensity as a co integrating relation, and its short-run dynamics. The robustness of ARDL results is verified using Dynamic OLS (DOLS) estimation technique. The results provide evidence of a Cointegration relation between energy intensity and its determinants. The results provide evidence that trade only significantly reduces energy intensity in the short run. Meanwhile, the results also show that income growth and industry value added have significant reducing effects on energy intensity. The results also raise some important policy issues, particularly on the inflows of foreign aid.