Financial Constraints and Exports: Firm Level Evidence from Nigeria
Abstract
The objective of the study is to analyse the interaction between financial constraints and
firms’ exporting behaviour in Nigeria. The empirical framework is applied to the 2014
World Bank Enterprise Surveys Indicator Database for Nigeria. The findings revealed that
the presence of financial constraints is detrimental to export activity which is measured by
the decision to export and the share of exports in total sales. The findings in this research
were robust to different measures of financial constraints in the presence of standard
control variables predicted by previous empirical and theoretical approaches. The positive
effect of better financial stance on the export activity was therefore established. Besides
that, this study also identifies credit access as a major factor that contributes to the poor
export behaviour of firms’ in Nigeria.