Purpose – Education is highly regarded as having a central influence on individuals' understanding and backing of democracy, but whether this occurs in young and small democratic states remain unknown. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether schooling and education have a positive...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the two issues of regional trade agreements (RTAs) and the new theory of international trade and draw conclusions for Pacific Island countries (PICs). The authors provide a deeper conceptual treatment of the consequences of RTAs and analyse the...

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the export‐led growth hypothesis for Fiji and Papua New Guinea (PNG). Design/methodology/approach – The paper investigates the export‐led growth hypothesis for Fiji and PNG who have been facing dismal economic growth performances over the last couple...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the export, import, and total trade determinants using reduced form equations for six Pacific Island countries (PICs) with an institutional focus. Design/methodology/approach – A fixed effects model, controlling for AR(1) errors, using panel...

Trade liberalization policies pursued by the Pacific Forum Island Countries (FICs) have been further cemented as an appropriate strategy for economic growth through the recently adopted trade agreements. Proponents of trade liberalization also argue that free trade leads to improvements in...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence of food security and human development inter‐relationships for a sample of low‐income countries. Design/methodology/approach – The analytical procedure involves the estimation of a reduced form equation utilising...

Purpose – The main purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the main institutional and governance issues facing the Pacific Island countries (PIC) and to point out how they affect their economic performance. The paper also provides a description of the key characteristics of the PIC...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to forecast Fiji's exports and imports for the period 2003‐2020. Design/methodology/approach – To achieve the goal of this paper, the autoregressive moving average with explanatory variables (ARMAX) model was applied. To this end, the paper drew on...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed comparison between Fiji and Mauritius and points out why Fiji which was better than Mauritius in the mid-1980s has fallen behind. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses recent literature on why countries fail economically and...

Driven by higher profit incentives, banks’ marketing strategies have tended increasingly to exclude sections of the retail market on socio‐economic lines. Ironically, these strategies are now seen to have profitability and social responsibility implications. Little previous attempt has been...