Small states development: A Commonwealth Vulnerability Index

Round Table

Volumn , Issue 351, 1999, Pages 403-422

  Easter, Christopher ^a  

^a Legal and Constitutional Affairs Division   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ECONOMIC CONDITIONS; GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT; METHODOLOGY; NATIONAL ECONOMY;

EID: 0032738691     PISSN: 00358533     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/003585399107947     Document Type: Article

References (19)

1. However, in dealing with small states issues, the Commonwealth includes in the group three larger countries (Jamaica, Lesotho and Papua New Guinea) which are considered to share the same characteristics of smallness.
2. The aspect of sovereignty is important because it means that the costs of providing infrastructure, public goods and services must be spread among only a small number of citizens.
3. Commonwealth Secretariat, A Future for Small States: Overcoming Vulnerability, Report by a Commonwealth Advisory Group, Commonwealth Secretariat, London, 1997.
4. Commonwealth Secretariat, Vulnerabilty: Small States in the Global Society, Report of a Commonwealth Consultative Group, Commonwealth Secretariat, London, 1985.
5. J. P. Atkins and S. Mazzi, A Commonwealth Vulnerability Index for Developing Countries, Economic Paper, Commonwealth Secretariat, London, 1999.
6. L. Briguglio, 'Small Island Developing States and their Economic Vulnerabilities', World Development, Vol 23, No 9, 1995, pp 1615-1632: and L. Briguglio, Alternative Economic Vulnerability Indices for Developing Countries, Report prepared for the United Nations, 1997.
7. L. Briguglio, 'Small Island Developing States and their Economic Vulnerabilities', World Development, Vol 23, No 9, 1995, pp 1615-1632: and L. Briguglio, Alternative Economic Vulnerability Indices for Developing Countries, Report prepared for the United Nations, 1997.
8. R. Chander, Measurement of the Vulnerability of Small States (mimeo), 1996.
9. Pantin, Alternative Ecological Vulnerability Indices for Developing Countries with Special Reference to Small Island Developing States, Report prepared for the United Nations, 1997.
10. UN, Development of a Vulnerability Index for Small Island States: Report for the Secretary General (mimeo), 1998.
11. UNCTAD, The Vulnerability of Small Island Developing States in the Context of Globalisation: Common Issues and Remedies (mimeo), 1996.
12. J. Wells, Composite Vulnerability Index: A Revised Report, Report prepared for the Commonwealth Secretariat, 1997.
13. These two small countries were Cyprus, which has an advanced, diversified economy, and Trinidad and Tobago, which is also reasonably diversified and benefits especially from oil export revenues.
14. The Appendix draws from Atkins and Mazzi, op cit, Ref 5.
15. Normalization procedures, commonly adopted in developing indexes often lead to non-linear transformations of the data and can lead to extreme observations being highly influential in determining outcomes. This may distort essential, interesting and informative features of the data.
16. The 11 countries excluded from the analysis consisted of five small states -Bahrain, Kiribati, Maldives, Malta and Vanuatu - and six large states - Chad. Mexico, Myanmar, Iran, Rwanda and Singapore.
17. See Briguglio, op cit, Ref 6.
18. p-values correspond to the t-statistics are used to test the statistical significance of the parameters. Note that the p-value, being a probability, takes values between zero and one and the lower the p-value, the higher the significance of the parameter.
19. The q-q plot graphs sample quantiles versus normal quantiles. If the variable is approximately normally distributed the q-q plot should resemble a straight line.