Sectoral labor employment in a Caribbean economy: The case of Barbados

This study examines the demand for labor in five major sectors of the Caribbean economy of Barbados. While the demand for labor function in the nontradable sectors appears well-defined in terms of real wages and real aggregate output, the inclusion of a variable to capture the effects of capital-deepening appears important to the specification of labor demand in the tradable sectors—agriculture and manufacturing. Low estimates of real wage elasticities and real output elasticities in the vicinity of unity suggest that employers in the major sectors are more likely to alter their demand for labor based on expectations of the economy’s performance than in response to labor cost factors denominated in producer prices.     

The dynamics of agricultural contribution to economic growth-Comment

This note points out several analytical errors in two recent articles by Edward Nissan on the agricultural contribution to economic growth in various economies.Inter alia, Nissan inappropriately employs annual average growth rate data, end-of-period output shares, and geometric “weights” in some of his calculations. In light of these errors, Nissan’s results should, where possible, be recalculated.     

Geographic information system concepts for land management

A Geographical Information System (GIS) has recently been developed for the assessment of the agricultural potential of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. The main value of this GIS is the integration of agricultural resource information from the SADC countries in order to support regional planning. The development of GIS technology makes it possible to compile, store, retrieve, analyse and display vast quantities of spatial data on, inter alia, the climate, topography, soils and infrastructure of the region. This article aims to give background information on the nature and general application of a GIS. Attention is given to the capabilities of a GIS, the spatial questions that drive analyses, basic database requirements, analytical and operational functions, as well as the applications of a GIS in land reform. More detail on the spatial agricultural resource data captured and its use by means of the SADC GIS will be described in a later article.     

The demand for labor in Caribbean community MDCs

This article presents a comparative analysis of labor market demand in the three major economies of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) in the period since 1970. The regression analysis indicates that the manufacturing sectors in Barbados and Jamaica were more responsive to changing domestic and international market conditions than the agricultural sectors, or than the Trinidad & Tobago manufacturing sector. Other important conclusions based on specifications at the aggregate level are that the real wage explained labor demand only in Jamaica, and that there was a secular increase in the demand for labor in both Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago, even after wages and output were controlled for. Taken in conjunction with the other findings for Trinidad & Tobago, we conclude that there is a need to focus on other sectors as important employers of labor in the period under analysis.     

Recent U.S. economic policies and the Central Caribbean economies

This study examines the trade and investment performances of three economies in the Central Caribbean region since the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) and associated programs. We find that the rapid growth in nontraditional exports from these economies to the United States did not necessarily translate into net foreign exchange earnings. On a per capita basis, export-related investment in Haiti was much lower than in the other two economies — Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. As a percentage of the labor force, gross employment gains for Jamaica have been significantly larger than those in either the Dominican Republic or Haiti. It appears that the policies favoring expansion in the offshore sector may foster employment opportunities of females, especially where traditional sectors are in decline.     

Does type of conjugal union matter in the labor market? Evidence from a Caribbean economy

Conclusion This preliminary investigation of earnings differences between men and women in a Caribbean country by the constitution of their marital union has sought to bring some contemporary evidence to bear on a long-asked question: to what extent does conjugal union status matter in Carribean society? More specifically, the article investigated this matter within the context of the Trinidad & Tobago labor market, and identified two types of conjugal unions: legal marriage and consensual cohabitation, generally referred to in the Carribean literature as “common law” unions.