The Tripartite Effects of Blue, Digital, and Climate Economies on Economic Development in Nigeria
Abstract
This study investigated the tripartite effects of the blue, digital, and climate economies on Nigeria’s economic development, focusing on their long-run and short-run dynamics. While previous studies have examined these economies individually. To address this gap, the study employed an ex post facto research design and analyzed time series data spanning 2000–2022, sourced from the World Bank Indicators and Statista. Using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, GDP per capita was adopted as a proxy for economic development, fisheries production for the blue economy, internet penetration for the digital economy, and carbon emissions for the climate economy. The results revealed that the blue economy exerts a strong and positive long-run effect on economic development in Nigeria (coefficient = 0.515, p < 0.01). Conversely, the digital economy (–0.0047, p < 0.05) and climate economy (–0.305, p = 0.07) negatively affect development in the long run. Short-run dynamics, however, indicate that digital economy contributes positively (0.00155, p < 0.05), while lagged climate variables show significant positive influence (0.159, p < 0.01). The model demonstrates robustness with an R² of 0.895, confirming its explanatory power. The paper contributes unique empirical evidence by quantifying the integrated impacts of these three economies.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Anthony Oyamendan, Adepoju Adeoba Asaolu, Betty Oluwayemisi Ali-Momoh, Mojisola Anne Abere, Pelumi A. Adewumi
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