Inimfon V. Patrick

Determinants of Food Consumption Expenditure among Agro-Based Firms Workers in Southern Nigeria: Simultaneous Equation Approach

The study determines factors that affect food consumption expenditure of agro based firm workers in Cross River State, Southern Nigeria. Cross-sectional data were collected from 250 randomly selected workers of five rubber estates in the region. Descriptive statistics and two-stage least squares method of simultaneous equation model was used in the analyses. Results of the descriptive analysis of the socio-economic characteristic of respondents reveal that, the rubber sub- sector is dominated by the middle age workers who are predominantly males. More than 70% of workers in the industry had some years of formal education; while majority of them had moderate family size. In addition about 97% of the workers have invested more than one year in the sampled estates. Also, 76.8% of respondents belong to the local cooperative society; while only 6% depended solely on their salaries. Furthermore, the results of the regression analysis reveal that

Analysis of economic capacity utilization in the Nigerian sugar industry (1970 - 2010)

The study analyzed economic capacity utilization rates in the sugar industry for the period 1970 to 2010 in Nigeria. Secondary data obtained from sugar firms; Central Bank of Nigeria; National Bureau of Statistics and the Federal Ministry of Finance were used in the study. Stochastic Cobb-Douglas cost functions for the sugar industry were estimated from which indices of economic capacity utilization rates were obtained. Trend in the economic capacity utilization rate showed undulated pattern with an average index of 60.30% and excess economic capacity of 39.70%. Multiple-regression of various forms based on the ordinary least squares technique was used to determine factors that influence the performance indicators in the industry. Empirical results revealed that economic capacity utilization rates in the sugar industry was influenced by the inflation rate, per capita real GDP, energy consumption of the industry, federal government expenditure on the sugar industry and the period of liberalization. The result of the regression and descriptive analyses revealed that the sugar industry in Nigeria was constrained by insufficient production inputs. Policy measures aimed at reduction or maintaining a steady or less fluctuated inflation rate in the country, expansionary aggregate demand, increase funding to agencies that have direct dealings with the sugar production and adequate provision of electricity to the industry as well as the adoption of the liberalization industrial policy on sugar industry were recommended.

Assessment of price transmission and market integration of pawpaw and leafy telfairia in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.

The study investigated the dynamics of price transmission and market integration of pawpaw and leafy fluted pumpkin in the rural and urban markets of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Monthly market prices (measured in naira per kilogram) of pawpaw and leafy fluted pumpkin in the rural and urban markets were used in the analysis. The data covered the period from January 2005 to September 2013. The data was obtained from the quarterly publications of the Akwa Ibom State Agricultural Development Programme (AKADEP). The trend analysis showed that, prices of pawpaw and leafy fluted pumpkin in the rural and urban markets have positive significant relationships with time and positive exponential growth rate. The Pearson correlation coefficient of each of the respective pair of rural and urban price of pawpaw and leafy fluted pumpkin revealed significant positive and symmetric relationships. The result implies the existence of symmetric price information flows on pawpaw and leafy fluted pumpkin in the rural and urban markets of the state. The bivariate Granger causality test revealed bi-directional relationships between the rural and urban price of pawpaw and leafy fluted pumpkin in the State. This further substantiates the strong co-movement of prices of pawpaw and leafy fluted pumpkin in the rural and urban markets and strong evidence of market integration. The equation for the law of one price revealed the presence of significant long run market