TABLE OF CONTENTS

 Title page                                                                                         

 Approval page                                                                                         

 Dedication                                                                                        

 Acknowledgement                                                                             

 Abstract                                                                                           

 Table of contents                                                                             

 List of tables and figures                                                                    

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

 1.1     Background of study                                                              

 1.1.2  Trade openness and output growth                                

 Historical Experience of the Nigeria economy              

Statement of the research problem                                

Objectives of the study                                                 

Statement of the research hypothesis                            

Justification of the study                                               

Significance of the study                                              

Scope and limitation of the study                                  

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

Theoretical literature                                                     

2.1.2 Theory of customs union and free trade areas                        

 2.1.3Models of export-led growth                                            

Empirical literature                                                       

Limitation of previous studies                                        

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 

Analytical framework                                                    

Model specification                                                      

        3.2.1 Test of stationarity                                                         

 3.2.2 Test of co integration                                                                 

 3.2.3 Error correction model                                                    

 3.3     Justification of the model                                                          

 3.4     Estimation techniques                                                             

 3.5     Evaluation Procedure                                                             

 3.5.1 Economic test (a priori expectation)                               

 3.5.2 Statistical (first order) test                                                         

 3.5.3 Econometric (second order) test                                               

 3.6     Sources of data and software for estimation                               

CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF RESULTS

Introduction                                                                 

Presentations of regression results                                

4.2.1Test of stationarity                                                                  

 4.2.2 Test of co integration                                                                

 4.2.3 The Error correction model (ECM)                                 

Interpretation and Evaluation of result                             

4.3.1Evaluation based on economic criteria                                     

 4.3.2Evaluation based on statistical criteria                                     

 4.3.3 Evaluation based on econometric criteria                      

Evaluation of the working Hypotheses                             

CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, POLICY PRESCRIPTION

AND CONCLUSION 

Summary                                                                    

Policy Recommendations                                             

APENDIX                                                                     I       

 APENDIX                                                                     II

 APENDIX                                                                     III (A)

 APENDIX                                                                     III (B)

 APENDIX                                                                     III(C)

 APENDIX                                                                     III (D)

 APENDIX                                                                     III (E)

 APENDIX                                                                     III (F)

 APENDIX                                                                       IV

 APENDIX                                                                       V

 APENDIX                                                                      VI    

 APENDIX                                                                      VII

 APENDIX                                                                      VIII 

 APENDIX                                                                       IX

 APENDIX                                                                       X

 APENDIX                                                                       XI

 APENDIX                                                                       XII

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

 Figure 1:     Growth Rate of Real GDP

 Figure 2: Trend of Real GDP

 Figure 3: Growth of Export and Import

 Figure 4: The Degree of Openness

 Table 1: Openness Indicators

 Table 2: A Priori Expectation

 Table 3: Results of Model 1

 Table 4: Results of Model 2

 Table 5: Results of Stationarity test

 Table 6: Results of Co integration test

 Table 7: Results of the Error Correction Model

 Figure 5: Non- Monotonic Relationship between TPN and  RGDP

 Table 8: Summary of the T-Test

 Table 9: Pair-Wise Correlation Matrix