Institutions and Caribbean Economic Performance: Insights from Jamaica

We explore the impact of social institutions on economic performance in Jamaica through a reinterpretation of the plantation economic model. In its original form, the plantation model fails to develop a causal link between the plantation legacy and persistent underdevelopment. Despite its marginalization, the model remains useful for discussions on growth and development. Consequently, we offer a reappraisal using the causal insights from Kenneth Sokoloff and Stanley Engerman. We use two examples to demonstrate how inequality encourages the formation of institutions that are inconsistent with growth, and an empirical analysis to confirm the hypothesized relationship between inequality, institutions, and economic development. Since inequality is expected to influence growth indirectly, we use a structural specification, which follows William Easterly’s recent test of Sokoloff and Engerman’s argument. Our reliance on a time-series specification is unique. We demonstrate that the expectation that, on average, inequality and growth is negatively related and that institutions may compromise growth are accurate for Jamaica, the most cited Caribbean nation in the current discourse. Our results carry several policy implications, including support for the recent calls in Jamaica for political restructuring. However, both the paucity of similar studies and the importance of the implications for sustainable growth and development demand further analyses.

The Values Shaping Australian Asylum Policy: The Views of Policy Insiders

Drawing on interviews with former political leaders and senior public servants, this article maps the values that have guided asylum policy decisions over the past three decades. The findings support the view that a culture of control permeates policy decisions, but pushing deeper, that policy‐maker perceptions of asylum issues are shaped by two primary values: nation building and good governance. Values that tend to preoccupy policy critics, for example human rights, compassion, international legal obligations and national character, are by no means absent, but are subsumed within and harnessed to the desire to be a good engineer and responsible governor. The study adds to the insights required for constructive dialogue between governments and refugee advocates, and affords a comprehensive framework within which asylum policy can be understood and analysed.