Public sector downsizing in the Cook Islands: some experience and lessons

An Economic Reform Program (ERP) was undertaken in the Cook Islands in mid-1996 when the economy was in a serious financial crisis due to an unsustainable fiscal expansion as a result of growing wage bill, an expanding welfare system, and surging capital expenditure largely funded by external borrowing. An attempt is made in this paper to understand the process adopted in the public sector downsizing which was a major component of ERP. The extent of the reduction in employment and the wage bill is found while analyzing the growth of the private sector. The process of downsizing involved a forced mass reduction in the size of the public service by 57.2 percent within a year without adequate development of the private sector. As a result large numbers of those laid off have emigrated to New Zealand and Australia for employment opportunities since 1996. A great loss of skills has resulted in deterioration in the quality of services especially in the health and education sectors. The process did, however, achieve the desired result of cutting expenditure on public servants by 58 percent in 1994/95 to 39 percent in 1997/98 of total budget expenditure. Downsizing should be carefully designed and carried out in phases over a period of time in the context of a particular institutional setting

Small Island states in crisis: the economic impact of lifestyle diseases in the South Pacific

The article examines the impact of non-communicable diseases (NCD) or lifestyle illnesses to the economy of the South Pacific region. Lifestyle illnesses are attributed to improved living standards as people practices increased consumption of high fat diets and use of alcohol and tobacco. The incidence of diseases is occurring in the younger population who are then restricted of the ability to contribute to the economic well being of his family, in supporting children's education and results in a cycle of poverty that is difficult to break. The illness gives individuals the burden of lost productivity and the emotional burden through the pain and suffering caused

Differences in health-promotion behaviour among the chronically ill in three South Pacific Island countries

In this study, the Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile was used to compare health-promoting behaviours in three groups of chronically ill people being treated as outpatients at clinics and hospitals in Fiji, Nauru, and Kiribati. Significant differences were found between males and females and among groups in relation to practices and attitudes towards health responsibility, physical activity, nutrition, and stress management. Health professionals and educators must develop ways to transmit the message of healthy lifestyles to populations that do not pay much attention to conventional health-education methods

Estimating aid-growth equations: the case of Pacific island countries

The seminal but controversial work of Burnside and Dollar (2000) has been the basis for much empirical research on the growth effects of developed aid. This article argues that the specifications adopted in these works are not consistent with the data and the statistical techniques used. A modified production function is proposed in which total factor productivity depends on time as well as the aid ratio. Our empirical results show that the effect of aid on the steady state growth rate is insignificant in the selected Pacific island countries. These countries are of interest because they are among the largest recipients of aid in per capital terms