Small Island States in the Pacific: the Tyranny of Distance

September 1, 2012

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Chris Becker. Small Island States in the Pacific: the Tyranny of Distance, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2012) accessed September 19, 2024

Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

This paper seeks to document key characteristics of small island states in the Pacific. It restricts itself to a limited number of indicators which are macro-orientated - population, fertility of land, ability to tap into economies of scale, income, and geographic isolation. It leaves aside equally important but more micro-orientated variables and development indicators. We show that small island states in the Pacific are different from countries in other regional groupings in that they are extremely isolated and have limited scope to tap economies of scale due to small populations. They often have little arable land. There is empirical evidence to suggest that these factors are related to income growth.

Subject: National accounts, National income, Personal income, Population and demographics

Keywords: A number of small states, Arable land, Caribbean, Economies of scale, Geographic isolation, Gross national income, Growth rate, Microstate, National income, Pacific Islands, Personal income, Small state sample, Small states, Small states in the Pacific, WP

Publication Details

Pages:

28
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2012/223
Stock No:

WPIEA2012223
ISBN:

9781475510263
ISSN:

1018-5941

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