Vol. 3 No. 2 (2025)

Open Access

Article

Article ID: 2852

Poverty mitigation in Nigeria: The role of human capital investment and institutions

by Samson Adeniyi Aladejare, Timothy Odzie, Patrick Akani Odey

Forum for Economic and Financial Studies, Vol.3, No.2, 2025;

Despite the enormous resource wealth and human capital of Nigeria, poverty has become endemic among its population. Thus, this paper assessed the role of human capital investment and institutions in mitigating poverty in Nigeria between 1990 and 2023. By employing the autoregressive distributed lag technique, the paper demonstrated that human capital has a weak effect in decelerating poverty levels in the country. Specifically, while public investment in education and health has no significant long-term impacts on poverty, an increase in employment significantly reduces poverty levels for Nigeria. Conversely, institutions were found to aid the rising trend of poverty in the country, with dysfunctionality in government effectiveness and politically motivated violence being significantly responsible. Thus, the study recommends an increase in funding for the health and educational sectors and an enabling environment for sophisticated manpower investment to further boost income levels against poverty incidences. Also, the dysfunctionality in the institutional workings of the country will need to be tamed before the dividends of governance can effectively tackle poverty.

Open Access

Article

Article ID: 2026

The impact of macroeconomic variables on financial performance: A bibliometric analysis

by Sanjay Singh Chauhan, Pradeep Suri, Farman Ali, Amit Joshi

Forum for Economic and Financial Studies, Vol.3, No.2, 2025;

This study aims to review the literature on the relationship between the stock market and macroeconomic variables. Given the stock market’s role in driving economic activity, understanding this interaction is critical for investors, policymakers, and economists. The research uses bibliometric analysis to explore the current literature, identify trends, and map the intellectual landscape. Using Scopus data from 1979 to 2023, 867 publications were analyzed with Bibliophagy, a tool in R’s Bibliometrics package, automating the identification of influential journals, authors, and themes. Citation analysis, co-citation analysis, and social network analysis further provided insights into the academic discourse. The findings show that the relationship between macroeconomic variables and stock markets has evolved with changing economic conditions. This study also identifies research gaps and suggests future studies focus on specific industries to understand better how macroeconomic factors impact different economic segments.