The role of government in enhancing the competitiveness of developing economies

This study examines the recent efforts by the governments of two Caribbean countries to enhance the competitiveness of their economies in the context of the framework of the use of functional versus selective government interventions. In the course of the study, however, it was discovered that rather than focus exclusively on the distinction between functional and selective interventions as if they represent competing models for public policy intervention, it was useful to examine, pragmatically, the range of policy options open to these governments, and then consider the scope and merits of intervention in the context of these policy options. In so doing, it becomes apparent that functional and selective government interventions, to the extent that they are always distinguishable, become points along a continuum, rather than orthogonal lines incapable of being joined. The lesson of these Caribbean economies and, it is argued, of the East Asian experience, is that there is no simple choice between selecti...