How can monetary authorities determine whether the current account balance is problematic? One method is based on the intertemporal consumption-smoothing model. This paper applies the intertemporal consumption-smoothing model - which is used to derive the optimal current account - to Barbados,...

The tourist industry is widely recognised as the key engine of growth in the Caribbean, representing a significant source of foreign exchange earnings and employment. The present study provides an assessment of how climate change could likely impact on regional tourism features. The analysis is...

This paper outlines a purely statistical approach for evaluating school performance within a district. Three performance criteria are detailed: absolute performance, relative performance and conditional performance. The criteria are applied to the Barbadian secondary school system. The study...

Since 1970, private sector credit has grown quite rapidly in the Caribbean. More recently, between 2004 and 2006, total real credit in the Caribbean has risen by a cumulative 55.7 percent, or approximately 19 percent per annum. In some countries, the rate of expansion has even been stronger,...

The 1990s were a turbulent time for Latin American and Caribbean countries. During this period, the region suffered from no less than sixteen banking crises. One of the most important determinants of the severity of banking crises is commercial bank liquidity. Banking systems, which are...

Can debt be used to finance growth? This question has stimulated a number of research papers, seminars and conferences. To date, however, no clear answer to the question is available. This paper attempts to answer the question using meta-analysis. Meta-analysis allows researchers to combine the...

The theoretical literature suggests that there should be a bi-directional relationship between investment and mergers. This essay uses homogenous and heterogeneous panel Granger causality tests to examine this hypothesis. The paper finds that in high-income countries, cross-border mergers tend...

Since 2003 policymakers in Barbados have implemented a series of tax reforms that have lowered both basic as well as marginal income tax rates. These changes have more than likely induced taxpayers to alter their behaviour in order to affect their reported taxable income. This paper employs an...

Economic theory suggests that opening the capital account should allow a country to diversify away economic shocks, increase capital inflows, expand economic growth and efficiency and encourage governments to pursue good policies, the empirical evidence with regard to these theoretical...

This study applies panel causality methods to investigate the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and tourism in Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The results of the homogenous and instantaneous causality tests suggest that there is a bi-directional causal relationship...