Abstracts – Browse Results
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Armstrong, A (2022) Revenue patterns of piped water services in rural Africa, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , University of Oxford.
Chapman, C (2023) Green and grey drainage infrastructure: costs and benefits of reducing surface water flood risk, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , University of Oxford.
Driessen, M (2014) Asphalt encounters: Chinese road building in Ethiopia, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , University of Oxford.
Huang, J (2020) Infrastructure, the economy and policy, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , University of Oxford.
Lau, C H (2019) The global trading activities of consulting engineering firms: managing risk and geographical choice, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , University of Oxford.
Marwah, H (2011) Investing in ghosts: Building and construction in Nigeria's oil boom and bust c1960-2000, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , University of Oxford.
- Type: Thesis
- Keywords: economic growth; private sector; income; revenues; government; investment; Nigeria
- ISBN/ISSN:
- URL: https://www.proquest.com/docview/1788102909
- Abstract:
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has been portrayed in scholarly literature as a prominent case of postcolonial African ‘growth failure’. Between 1960 and 2000 oil reserves were exploited resulting in revenues of more than $300 billion to the Nigerian government, while real per capita income fell over the same period. This thesis, by focusing on building and construction in Nigeria from 1960 to 2000, explains how and why Nigeria failed to invest its oil revenues to create long-term economic growth. Its findings have important implications for investment analyses of other commodity-rich countries in Africa and across the developing world. It draws on a wide range of primary quantitative and qualitative sources including government surveys, construction-related company financial data and project lists, industry publications, newspapers, and the correspondence files of a major Nigerian architecture firm. These are used to present a picture of historical building activity which includes a 40-year dataset of cement price and consumption, and a construction supply curve for both the oil boom and bust periods. By quantifying for the first time the long-observed ‘ghost construction’ of the oil boom, this thesis finds that annually about two thirds of what scholars and national accounts statistics had estimated was being invested in construction was never actually invested, implying that what was invested offered a greater return than has previously been acknowledged. Although investment in construction was overstated during the oil boom, during the oil bust construction was understated as major government projects were funded off-budget and away from public scrutiny. This thesis demonstrates that the most productive area of public investment has been infrastructure, and further that the private sector construction industry was a valuable asset which greatly enhanced the government’s ability to implement investment programmes, when it had the political will to do so.
Merdinger, C J (1949) A history of civil engineering, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , University of Oxford.
O'Mahony, M M (1990) Recycling of materials in civil engineering, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , University of Oxford.
Peveler, E (2018) The supply of building materials to construction projects in Roman Oxfordshire: Logistics, economics, and social significance, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , University of Oxford.
Pickhaver, J A (2006) Numerical modelling of building response to tunnelling, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , University of Oxford.
Sheng, X (2018) Public-private partnership in the development of infrastructure under the 'Belt and Road' initiative, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , University of Oxford.