Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the tensions likely to arise in Pacific Island countries resulting from their high‐population growth rates and poor agricultural productivity growth, the difficulties of accessing land for commercial purposes, the rapid rate of rural‐urban...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the social development situation in the Pacific Island countries (PICs). It also aims to present the various social and economic policies that are directly linked to improving social indicators. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to articulate the etiology of ethnic conflict in Fiji that moves beyond polemical interpretations which routinely and often erroneously apportion blame. Design/methodology/approach – A critical survey of ethnic conflict between in Indo‐ and indigenous...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the time series properties of 26 macroeconomic variables in Papua New Guinea (PNG) over the period 1970‐2006. Design/methodology/approach – Both unit root and stationarity tests without a structural break and the Lagrange Multiplier (LM)...

Purpose – Under the fixed exchange rate regime Fiji's currency, which is pegged to a basket of currencies of its major trading partners, has been experiencing severe pressures. The purpose of this paper is to study annual exchange market pressure (EMP) over a 31‐year (1975‐2005) period and...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to construct an econometric model of the determinants of private investment with a particular focus on the impact of democracy on investment. Design/methodology/approach – The first step was to econometrically derive the long‐run elasticities; then to...

Purpose – There are several studies that investigate evidence for mean reversion in stock prices. However, there is no consensus as to whether stock prices are mean reverting or random walk (unit root) processes. The goal of this paper is to re‐examine mean reversion in stock prices....

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the monetary policy transmission mechanism for the Fiji Islands using a structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) model for the period 1975 to 2005. Design/methodology/approach – The SVAR model investigates how a monetary policy shock –...