Poverty & Social Development: A Caribbean Perspective

Development Economics has never been a field of quiet assumptions, but rather a breeding ground for analytical perspectives to rally discussions about the diverse components that could strengthen growth, or delineate the determinants of productivity.
Of course, it goes without saying that this can’t be a quiet ride, given the fact that the analysis behind factors of production and sustained growth can be a rocky journey as these phenomena call for structural changes to re-define productivity models, socio-economic development typologies, with of course their impacts on management decisions, and labor market dynamics.

And in this respect, we surely can’t say that there is a shortage of discussions as the following excerpt provides insights into the nexus between factors of production, and the determinants for sustained growth. In a very interesting differentiation the analysis bring-in a broad sectoral approach taking into account a country’s specifics, as they impact upon its performance ratios in terms of economic expansion, and future strategies to roll-out “total-factor productivity” (Jamaica).

“There is a tendency in popular discussion to. bemoan the limited working capability of labour as the main problem in Jamaica. Low productivity is an extremely important aspect of the matter, but it is not the whole story.

"The low productivity of other factors of production - capital and land - is a significant ingredient of the overall problem of low productivity," McIntyre said.

"Several recent reports on Jamaica and other Caribbean countries have drawn attention to low and declining capital/output ratios, and in particular, to the declining efficiency of public investment. One should also recognise the low productivity of land, illustrated by low crop yields with respect to a variety of crops.”

The debates are on again, and they will be roaring as the pace toward the identification of socio-economic models among nations, in their different brackets of development include a wide range of components to carry-out the assessments of outputs to inputs ratios, and how these variables affect certain outcomes in productivity, and the designs of effective management-decision frameworks.