Policies for Achieving Structural Transformation in the Caribbean

The purpose of this paper is to apply new methodologies to analyze the history of and future opportunities for structural transformation in the Caribbean. The paper examines the composition of exports from the Caribbean, and shows that the region is specialized in relatively unsophisticated, “poor-country” export products, and this is not simply a consequence of their small size or specialization in tourism and financial services. It goes on to review the concept of the “product space” to determine where the Caribbean countries are specialized within this space.