The effects of system dynamics on failure: Illustrative examples

Several failure cases, the effects of dynamics of impulse and impact in concert with system support on failure.     

What Do Demand and Supply Shocks Say About Caribbean Monetary Integration?

This study seeks to ascertain whether the member states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) share similar supply and demand shocks. If so, an argument can be made for the suitability of said countries being part of a currency union. The results show that no significant correlation exists for the majority of countries studied, and as such no economic justification for the monetary union can be made based on the methodology used. However, the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU), whose members are a part of CARICOM, is supported by the results.     

Economic performance over time: Does porter's diamond hold at the national level?

This research examines the conditions that contribute to the performance of countries and their industries in international markets. Building on Porter's dynamic diamond, 1960 and 1985 data on 49 countries are used to develop country-level factors related to national economic performance. Three factors were identified: infrastructure/demand, competitive investment, and education. The analysis considers how these factors are related to gross domestic product, net exports, and foreign direct investment. It also assesses changes over time and differences between industrialized and developing countries. The relationships between the three factors and GDP were substantially the same for both industrialized and developing countries, but not for net exports and foreign direct investment. These findings suggest that the relationships between the factors and national performance have changed over time and that there are important differences between developing and industrialized countries.     

Unemployment and racial differences in imprisonment

Conventional wisdom about the criminal justice system suggests that extralegal factors such as race or employment status should not affect sentencing outcomes. In this paper we examine an alternative model of the relationship between imprisonment and unemployment and race. The model suggests that penal practices are shaped by the labor market conditions of a system of production and that prisons, as part of a larger set of institutions providing support for economically-dependent populations, help to regulate the most superfluous group of workers in the industrial economy of the Northern states of the United States—unemployed black workers who comprise a large fraction of the pool of “reserve” workers necessary for price stability and economic expansion. We find support for the structural model that links black imprisonment (and Northern imprisonment in general) to manufacturing output and black unemployment.