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Paper short abstract

The paper explores how institutions, laws (written/unwritten) and general structures of governance in the colonial period in the English-speaking Caribbean can still shape the present day economy and institutions like the labour market.

Paper long abstract

Robinson and Acemoglu (2012) argue that historical structures shape economic and political institutions, which can have lasting effects on development. This paper traces the organisation of economic activities and the labour market from 1800 to today in four English-speaking Caribbean countries (Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago), interrogating areas of persistence vs change and offering explanations of both. Although all four countries are former British colonies, there is variation in the length of colonial rule and forms of governance across the countries. The paper is methodologically interdisciplinary, drawing on historical analysis of archival material and economic analysis of contemporary quantitative data. Preliminary findings show that both the organisation of economic activities and the labour market have transformed from agrarian systems of the 1800s, to primarily service-driven economies in Barbados and Jamaica, and energy-based economies in Trinidad and Tobago and now Guyana. A commonality among the four, and most developing countries, is the comparatively nascent manufacturing sectors. We analyse these patterns against the historical structures which encouraged ‘monoculture’ economic activity, structures of economic and political governance that encouraged systems of extraction (as argued by dependency theorists), and the agency of the post-independence governments to set policy.