Preeya Mohan

Innovative Activity in the Caribbean: Drivers, Benefits, and Obstacles

We investigate the determinants of innovation and the benefits from it in making firms more productive in the Caribbean. To this end we use a rich firm level dataset covering 14 different countries and various non-parametric, semi- parametric and parametric statistical tools. Our results show that, while firms may be productive for many reasons, there are substantial productivity benefits resulting from investment in innovation. Moreover, these benefits do not appear to be particularly low compared to what prevails in other developing countries. However, there is some indication that factors that would normally encourage innovation investment, such as patent protection, public subsidies, or cooperation among innovators, may not bear fruit.

The short-term economic impact of tropical Cyclone Pam: an analysis using VIIRS nightlight satellite imagery

ABSTRACT Cyclones are relatively instantaneous shocks where arguably most of the important consequences take place in the first few weeks or months. In this article, we construct destruction proxies of wind exposure and storm surge damages and use satellite measures of nightlight intensity to investigate the short-term impact of tropical cyclones using the case study of Cyclone Pam, which struck the South Pacific Islands in March 2015. Using the unaffected islands as a control group, our regression analysis reveals that initially the storm reduced economic activity in the affected islands by as much as 111%, but by the seventh month there were positive boosts to nightlight intensity. By the ninth month this resulted in cumulative net increases in activities related to night-time electricity usage. More generally, our results suggest that there is likely considerable temporal heterogeneity in the response of areas affected by tropical cyclones and demonstrates the potential of using nightlight imagery to assess the short-term economic impact of tropical storms, and possibly other extreme event phenomena, in a relatively timely manner.

Exploring Firm-Level Innovation and Productivity in Developing Countries: The Perspective of Caribbean Small States

This monograph explores productivity, innovation, and firm performance, important issues that affect private sector development in the Caribbean region. Using unique and recently available datasets consisting of more than 4,000 surveys at the firm level, and covering 13 Caribbean countries, it examines a set of variables that affect productivity and innovation in the region. The chapters provide a unique perspective on the barriers to innovation, and on how access to finance, competition, foreign direct investment, gender, access to electricity, and public programs affect productivity and innovation at the firm level. The publication culminates with a review of the policy interventions that could have the most impact in increasing firm performance within the region.

A hurricane wind risk and loss assessment of Caribbean agriculture

Hurricanes act as large external shocks potentially causing considerable damage to agricultural production in the Caribbean. While a number of existing studies have estimated their historic economic impact, arguably the wider community and policy makers are more concerned about their future risk and potential losses, since this type of information is useful for disaster preparedness and mitigation strategy and policy. This paper implements a new approach to undertake a quantitative risk and loss assessment of the agricultural sector of Caribbean island economies. To this end we construct an expected loss function that uses synthetically generated, as well as historical, hurricane tracks within a wind field model that takes cropland exposure derived from satellite data into consideration. The results indicate that expected losses are potentially large but vary considerably across the region, where the smaller islands are considerably more likely to be negatively impacted.

Caribbean Diversification and Development

Small Island Developing States generally adopt diversification as their primary development strategy, often with little success. Nevertheless, there is no empirical study specifically focusing on the pattern of diversification of these countries in relation to their development. The objective of this paper was to study the export diversification pattern by the intensive (a more equally spread export basket) and extensive (an increase in new export lines) product margin of 21 Caribbean countries in relation to their level of development using panel data. The results show that despite their limited ability to diversify, Caribbean countries, as has been found for other parts of the world, first diversify and subsequently respecialise though at a substantially lower level of income than other countries and that the intensive margin plays a greater role in this process.

In-Firm Training, Innovation and Productivity: The Case of Caribbean Small Island Developing States

ABSTRACT In-firm training is a crucial innovative activity in modern knowledge-based economies, which face increasing global competition and rapidly changing technology. Nevertheless, there are few studies that look at in-firm training in the Caribbean. This study uses the World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) 2010 and Compete Caribbean’s Productivity Technology Innovation Survey (PROTEqIN) 2014 to provide empirical evidence on in-firm training in the region. The results suggest that there is a relatively low incidence of training in the region, although there are significant differences across countries and this may be because of heterogeneities in public support and barriers to in-firm training. Also, various firm characteristics affect in-firm training including size, ownership, whether the firm exports, whether the firm is part of a larger organization, innovative activity and workforce structure and educational level. Lastly, the findings suggest that in-firm training in the region may play a relatively small role and may even not matter for innovation and productivity, although this finding may be because of low levels of formal training and the metrics used in defining and measuring in-firm training, innovation and productivity given the data available and limitations of the sample.

A Storm in a Teacup? Hurricanes and Sugar Prices in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century

AbstractThis paper investigates the impact of hurricanes in the Caribbean on sugar prices in Britain between 1815 and 1841. The authors expect the news of hurricanes arriving at British harbors to drive up sugar prices mainly because the market anticipated that the supply of sugar from the Caribbean colonies would drop dramatically in the near future. The econometric results suggest a significant rise in prices due to hurricanes. Moreover this study finds that the lag between the hurricane strike and its transmission into sugar prices on the London market decreased over the sample period. This latter result might be explained by the technological innovations marking this era, where technological progress in transport reduced the time required for information to cross the Atlantic, making markets more reactive to the news of supply shocks.