Public Debt and Productivity: The Difficult Quest for Growth in Jamaica
IMF Working Papers, October 1, 2006
Source details
- Canonical URL
- Public Debt and Productivity: The Difficult Quest for Growth in Jamaica
Other formats
Bibliographic details
- Authors: Rodolphe Blavy
- Published: October 1, 2006
- Series: IMF Working Papers
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451864953.001
Summary findings
- The paper analyzes Jamaica's experience of low growth despite consistently high investment.
- Cross-country analysis provides evidence of a significant and negative relationship between total public debt and productivity growth.
- In Jamaica, high public debt has been associated with macroeconomic uncertainty and an output structure that relied excessively on a few maturing sectors with limited scope for productivity growth.
- Public investment has been crowded out by debt service, further adversely affecting productivity growth.
Cross-country evidence
- Significant and negative relationship identified between total public debt and productivity growth (as stated in the study's cross-country analysis).
Channels through which high public debt affected Jamaica
- Macroeconomic uncertainty linked to high public debt.
- Output structure dependence on a few maturing sectors with limited scope for productivity growth.
- Crowding out of public investment by debt service, negatively impacting productivity growth.
Subject areas and keywords
- Subject: Informal economy, Productivity, Public debt, Public investment and public-private partnerships (PPP), Public investment spending
- Keywords: debt, GDP, investment, Jamaica, WP
Content in this bundle
- Selected Growth Trends, 1980–2004