Gertler,Paul (Author), Heckman,James (Author), Pinto,Rodrigo (Author), Zanolini,Arianna (Author), Vermeerch,Christel (Author), Walker,Susan (Author), Chang,Susan M. (Author), and Grantham-McGregor,Sally (Author)
Format:
Pamphlet
Publication Date:
June 2013
Published:
National Bureau of Economic Research
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
58 p., Shows large effects on the earnings of participants from a randomized intervention that gave psychosocial stimulation to stunted Jamaican toddlers living in poverty. The intervention consisted of one-hour weekly visits from community Jamaican health workers over a 2-year period that taught parenting skills and encouraged mothers to interact and play with their children in ways that would develop their children's cognitive and personality skills. Study participants were re-interviewed 20 years after the intervention. Findings show that psychosocial stimulation early in childhood in disadvantaged settings can have substantial effects on labor market outcomes and reduce later life inequality.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
60 p., Explains how the implementation of the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union should serve as an impetus for stakeholders in the region to address these barriers thereby creating favorable conditions for the production and export of Caribbean entertainment services. Presents an overview of policies in the creative sector in terms of the promotion of services exports in selected CARICOM states: Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Washington, DC: Center for Economic and Policy Research
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
4 p., In early 2010, in an effort to address its unsustainable debt burden, and as a pre-condition for an IMF agreement, Jamaica undertook a debt exchange that sought to lower interest rates and extend maturities but did not provide any haircut (a lowering of the debt principal). As part of the IMF agreement, Jamaica undertook severe austerity measures, freezing wages and cutting spending. Even after the debt exchange, Jamaica was left with the highest debt interest burden in the world. Although the IMF agreement eventually broke down, Jamaica has largely continued the austerity measures from the first agreement. Three years after the IMF agreement was signed and the debt exchange completed, Jamaica once again turned to the IMF and undertook a new exchange. Once again, the exchange only affected domestically held debt and did not reduce the principal. Once again, the conditions may prove unsustainable. The recently signed IMF agreement, together with funding from the World Bank and IDB, will give Jamaica access to some $2 billion dollars of loans over the next four-plus years. But it is also the case that, after billions of dollars of previous World Bank, IDB and IMF loans, much of its debt is actually owed to the very same institutions that are now offering new loans. This issue brief looks at the case for multilateral debt cancellation in Jamaica.
