Social Science Research Council

In the spring of 2000, the Latin American Regional Advisory Panel launched a project to examine the marked income inequality that exists among the various Caribbean nations. The project, which includes both qualitative and quantitative analyses, pays particular attention to possible correlations between inequality and environmental degradation.

The construction of a historical database of information on all economic units of the pan-Caribbean has been crucial to the development of the project. This database, assembled by Victor Bulmer-Thomas (Royal Institute of International Affairs), Shelton Nicholls (Caribbean Centre for Monetary Studies) and their colleagues, served as a resource for the eight country case studies written and first discussed at a meeting in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad in May of 2001.

The May 2001 meeting provided the opportunity for the researchers to discuss the case studies which presented competing explanations for the strikingly diverse performance of economies in the region. Revised versions of these papers were discussed at a December 2001 workshop in Barbados, and a selection was published in a special volume of Integration and Trade, which was launched at a third meeting in June 2002, also in Port-of-Spain. The volume is available in both Spanish- and English-language editions from the website of INTAL (Instituto para la Integración de América Latina y el Caribe ).

The June 2002 meeting marked the end of Phase I of the project. At this juncture, as contemplated from the outset, the SSRC is devolving this project entirely to institutions in the region, including the Caribbean Centre for Monetary Studies, the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute for Social and Economic Studies, the Association of Caribbean Economists, and all three campuses of the University of the West Indies. Plans for Phase II include elaboration of the database, making it accessible to a broad research community and encouraging further comparative publications assessing patterns of economic change across the Caribbean.

The initial phase of this project was coordinated by Victor Bulmer-Thomas and conducted jointly with INTAL and Inter-American Development Bank with partial funding from INTAL.