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This analysis of male-female differences in labour-market outcomes for Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago employs an augmented human capital model. The article begins with an overview of educational provision and labour-market conditions in these two economies over the post emancipation period. The second section presents the model to be analysed, the third discusses the data to be employed, the fourth presents the empirical findings, and the fifth analyses the earnings differentials across the two countries. (DSE/DÜI)

This article presents a comparative analysis of labor market demand in the three major economies of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) in the period since 1970. The regression analysis indicates that the manufacturing sectors in Barbados and Jamaica were more responsive to changing domestic and international market conditions than the agricultural sectors, or than the Trinidad & Tobago manufacturing sector. Other important conclusions based on specifications at the aggregate level are that the real wage explained labor demand only in Jamaica, and that there was a secular increase in the demand for labor in both Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago, even after wages and output were controlled for. Taken in conjunction with the other findings for Trinidad & Tobago, we conclude that there is a need to focus on other sectors as important employers of labor in the period under analysis.

This study examines the demand for labor in five major sectors of the Caribbean economy of Barbados. While the demand for labor function in the nontradable sectors appears well-defined in terms of real wages and real aggregate output, the inclusion of a variable to capture the effects of capital-deepening appears important to the specification of labor demand in the tradable sectors—agriculture and manufacturing. Low estimates of real wage elasticities and real output elasticities in the vicinity of unity suggest that employers in the major sectors are more likely to alter their demand for labor based on expectations of the economy's performance than in response to labor cost factors denominated in producer prices.

This note points out several analytical errors in two recent articles by Edward Nissan on the agricultural contribution to economic growth in various economies. Inter alia, Nissan inappropriately employs annual average growth rate data, end-of-period output shares, and geometric "weights" in some of his calculations. In light of these errors, Nissan's results should, where possible, be recalculated.

This study examines the trade and investment performances of three economies in the Central Caribbean region since the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) and associated programs. We find that the rapid growth in nontraditional exports from these economies to the United States did not necessarily translate into net foreign exchange earnings. On a per capita basis, export-related investment in Haiti was much lower than in the other two economies — Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. As a percentage of the labor force, gross employment gains for Jamaica have been significantly larger than those in either the Dominican Republic or Haiti. It appears that the policies favoring expansion in the offshore sector may foster employment opportunities of females, especially where traditional sectors are in decline.

This article employs a unique data set from 1993 with 7,063 working men and women from Trinidad and Tobago to examine the impact of ethnicity and socioeconomic status upon marital earnings premiums. It finds a significant marriage premium for both males and females. Ethnicity is found to play a crucial role in marital premiums with more advantaged ethnic groups having generally higher premiums. This result is strengthened when controlling for socioeconomic status, which is found to increase the size of marital premiums for all workers, regardless of gender or ethnicity. Earnings regressions with endogenous marital status confirm these results and further highlight the importance of socioeconomic status.

This article uses 1993 data from the Trinidad and Tobago Continuous Sample Survey of the Population to investigate patterns of remuneration across its public and private sectors. Unlike results from developed countries, the large earnings premium to public sector workers in Trinidad & Tobago appears to be explained more so by differences in returns to characteristics valued by the labor market than by differences in levels of these characteristics. The large public sector earnings premium is also more likely to benefit the most disadvantaged workers in the economy, Africans and women. These two findings highlight the possibility that the government is using its ability to pay its workers differentially in order to offset private sector ethnic and gender discrimination. Hence, the current move towards privatization of nationalized industries in Trinidad and Tobago is likely to have the impact of increasing ethnic and gender earnings inequity.