1. Introduction
Robert E. Looney
Part I Commonalities
2. An Alternative Policy Approach to Growth and Stabilization in Small Open Economies
DeLisle Worrell
3. Impacts of Climate Change on Caribbean Economies
Masao I. Ashtine
4. Caribbean Energy Security: Regional Profile and Challenges to Integration
David Goldwyn and Cory Gill
5. The Caribbean Holds Its Own in Global Tourism Competition
DeLisle Worrell
6. CARICOM and that Vexing Issue of Size and Viability
Patsy Lewis
Part II Obstacles to Sustained Progress
7. Debt and Fiscal Constraints
Lester Henry
8. Crime, Violence, and Drugs in the Caribbean
Sherill V. C. Morris-Francis
9. It’s Complicated: The Caribbean’s Relationship to White-Collar Crime
Kristina Hinds
10. Caribbean Natural Disasters and Country/Regional Responses
Robert E. Looney
11. Why and How to Use Fiscal Policy to Target the Exchange Rate
DeLisle Worrell
Part III External Influences
12. Venezuela: The Descent into a ‘Soft State’
Anthony P. Maingot
13. The External Economic Relations of the Caribbean: The United States and Europe Union Compared
Ginelle Greene-Dewasmes and Tony Heron
14. China’s Increasing Influence in Central America and the Caribbean
Richard L. Bernal
15. Regional Cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean: New Challenges and Agendas
Cintia Quiliconi and Renato Rivera Rhon
Part IV Country Case Studies
16. The Puerto Rican Economy
Brad Setser and Sergio Marxuach
17. Haiti
Wenche Iren Hauge
18. The Cuban Economy: Socialist Stagnation with Caribbean Characteristics
Richard E. Feinberg
19. Trinidad and Tobago
Lester Henry
20. Belize
Victor Bulmer-Thomas
21. Guyana and the Advent of World-class Petroleum Finds
Clive Y. Thomas
22. Development and Underperformance in the Barbados Economy, 1946-2018
DeLisle Worrell
23. Suriname
Scott B. MacDonald
24. The Bahamas: Facing a Period of Climate Change and Slow Growth
Robert E. Looney
25. The Cayman Islands
Scott B. MacDonald
26. Guadeloupe and Martinique in the Caribbean Basin: A Comparative Analysis of Models and Trajectories
Alain Maurin and Patrick Kent Watson
27. The Dominican Republic
Susan Pozo and Antonio María Giraldi
28. The Jamaican Economy: A Caribbean Success Story at Last?
Keith Collister and Robert E. Looney
29. The Dutch Caribbean
Scott B. MacDonald
Biography
Robert E. Looney is a Distinguished Professor in the National Security Affairs Department at the Naval Postgraduate School, California. He specializes in issues relating to economic intelligence and economic development in the Middle East, Latin America and Africa. Professor Looney has published 22 books and is the editor of the Routledge Europa Emerging Economies series.
‘The Caribbean in public, and often academic, discourse is considered as a single space facing a uniform set of circumstances. But this does the region a great injustice, and that is why the edited volume is so timely and essential. It offers a nuanced account of the internal and external threats, challenges, but also opportunities, facing the Caribbean two decades into the 21st Century. The key issues are evaluated by a distinguished set of authors. Balanced insights are offered, but crucially an attempt is made to advance new thinking and positive solutions. What is particularly welcome are the individual country studies, which occupy the latter half of the volume. A truly pan-Caribbean approach is taken that illustrates conclusively the region’s rich diversity, from Guyana with its new oil wealth to the continuing tragedy of Haiti, and from the small UK Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands to Guadeloupe and Martinique, outermost regions of the EU. All-in-all a nicely conceived and instructive volume.’ Peter Clegg, University of the West of England.
‘The Handbook of Caribbean Economies is an on-the-minute reference work that is vital for anyone with a professional interest in the region. But it is much more than that, offering comprehensive policy-oriented analyses of problems ranging from climate change to excessive external debt to lack of diversification that explain why current growth rates are generally sub-par in the Caribbean and why future prospects are so challenging.’ Peter Passell, Editor-in-Chief, Milken Institute Review.
`In this erudite and informative volume, some of the Caribbean’s leading specialists provide a panoramic view of the region’s political economy. Their sophisticated analyses examine the obstacles and external influences with which Caribbean economies must contend. The contributors underscore the region’s deep crisis: the rocky transition from plantation economies based on sugar to economies based mostly on tourism. The EU’s decision to end preferential treatment of the Caribbean shook the region, but so have climate change, natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes, and the manmade calamities of drug trafficking and organized crime. Haiti’s economy has been especially hard hit, Puerto Rico went bankrupt, and Cuba still hasn’t recovered from the breakup of the Soviet Union. Guyana, with its new offshore oil discoveries, and the Dominican Republic, with its creditable economic performance, shine brightly in an otherwise depressing regional tableau. The islands’ attempt to find their niche in the world economy remains a work in progress.' Jorge Heine, Foreign Affairs.
