Conference of the Economy 2008 Regional integration in an era of Globalization

1. Conference of the Economy 2008Regional integration in an era of Globalization A Tribute to Dr Trevor Farrell

2. Determinants of Beijing Medal Count and Revealed Comparative Advantage, Athletics and Building Social Cohesion in the CARICOM Roger Hosein and Patrick Watson Presented by Roger Hosein

3. Introduction • For a small developing region like the CARICOM sports can promote a number of important developments. • Sports can help in strengthening regional ties, engagement, identity and pride. • Sporting activities and events contribute to the development of stronger social networks and more socially cohesive countries. • Sports provide opportunities for social engagement, often with alternative peer groups, which can create awareness of differences and break down barriers for individuals, communities and the region.

4. Objective of Presentation • The main objectives of this study is • To determine the factors influencing medal outcomes in the recently concluded Beijing Olympics. • To assess the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) of Caribbean economies with regards to their Olympic performances in the last 16 years. • To argue in favor of a more pronounced regional sporting agenda, led by athletics to help build a greater element of social cohesiveness in the region with the intention that this can form the basis for deeper economic integration.

5. Ability to win medals

6. Socioeconomic factors affecting medal count • Population • Economic resources (income per capita) • Hosting of the Olympics • Learning by doing • Political structure of an economy • Social conditions, e.g. literacy • Gender development index

7. Regression estimates from various models: the dependent variable is medal count

8. Histogram showing residuals for model Figure 2: Residuals for Model

9. Residual, actual and fitted values Figure 3: Residual, Actual and Fitted Values

10. Revealed Comparative Advantage and the Caribbean’s Specialization in Athletics • Balassa (1965) in an evaluation of the factors that determine the comparative advantage of an economy noted that, “Comparative advantage appears to be the outcome of a number of factors, some measurable, others not, some easily pinned down, others less so. One wonders, therefore, whether more could not be gained if instead of enunciating general principles and trying to apply these to explain actual trade flows, one took the observed pattern of trade as a point of departure.”

11. Revealed Comparative Advantage and the CARICOM’s Specialization in Athletics The Balassa index as utilized by Tscha and Pershin (2003) adapted for our purposes can be represented as illustrated in the formulation below: Where • Mi : amount of medals won by country i • Mij : Country’s i medal in sports j • Tj : the number of medals won in sport j • T : total number of medals won at the Olympics.

12. RCA Scores in cycling and various socio economic attributes of relevant economies, 2008

13. RCA Scores in swimming and various socio economic properties of relevant economies, 2008

14. RCA Scores in athletics and various socio economic properties of relevant economies, 2008

15. RCA Scores in athletics and various socio economic properties of relevant economies, 2008

16. RCA score in Athletics 1996 - 2008

17. Medal count in Athletic for Bahamas

18. Medal count in Athletics for Jamaica, (post independence)

19. RCA scores of Jamaica in athletics

20. CARICOM Integration, Social Cohesiveness and Sports • CARICOM has not been able to entirely deliver on its economic promises in any meaningful way and the region’s trade continues to be mainly dominated by one member state.

21. CARICOM Integration, Social Cohesiveness and Sports • There have been several attempts in the past to unite the Caribbean islands and several institutions have actually established that carry regional significance, these are the Caribbean Common Market (CARICOM), the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) and the University of the West Indies (UWI). Although these institutions have made significant contributions to regional development there are still much more gaps which need to be closed, one such being in sports.

22. CARICOM Integration, Social Cohesiveness and Sports • CARICOM people are passionate about sports and the West Indies cricket team (especially during the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s) has done much to integrate the English speaking Caribbean economies. Regardless of the various forms of island insularity that may prevail, at cricket time West Indians unite. This unity in sports is captured in the Rally cry, the “national anthem’ of the West Indies cricket: “Rally Round the West Indies”.

23. CARICOM Integration, Social Cohesiveness and Sports • Cameron and Mac Dougall (2000) in a detailed study on the Australian economy concluded that: “ It appears that sport and physical activity can reduce crime by providing accessible, appropriate activities in a supportive social context (page 1).”

24. CARICOM Integration, Social Cohesiveness and Sports • Greater social cohesiveness within CARICOM is critical to generate a greater degree of regional confidence in the CSME process.

25. Sports can help build social cohesian by: • Providing plain simple fun, • Providing an escape valve from many of the pressures in society, • Helping to promote a sense of equality, • Providing a substitutable alternative for young people’s time and so reduces scope for the use of illicit drugs and other forms of deviant behavior.

26. Social Cohesiveness and the CSME process 1) improved social cohesive can increase the will of the people in CARICOM to see the CSME process succeed. 2) improved social cohesive can help build a greater sense of confidence in things Caribbean (Two sporting events that helped to fuel the confidence of West Indians is that in 1952 Jamaica won more medals than the UK and in the 1950 the West Indies cricket team beat the English cricket team for the first time).

27. Social Cohesiveness and the CSME process. • 3) Social cohesion can help stimulate the type of patience that is required for regional firms to mature intraregionally before they can cope with the rigours of the extra regional market.

28. Conclusion • The CARICOM region has come a long way but still has much distance to cover on the road to economic development. Building a more socially cohesive region can help to strengthen regional bonds beyond what exists and enhance the economic relations that are a necessary part of the integration process.

29. Conclusion • Sports has a definite role to play in this whole process. This study suggests that because the region has a comparative advantage in athletics that various avenues be pursued to mobilize greater intra CARICOM integration in this field of sporting endeavor. Focusing on an area with proven RCA strength can minimize the chances failure and maximize the chances of success.

30. Conclusion Some immediate policy recommendations would include: • Replication of the Jamaican CHAMPS system into primary schools throughout the region • Replication of the GC Foster and UTECH/MVP setting in at least two other member states, possibly Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago • Functional cooperation by member states in athletics, probably including more intra CARICOM competitions • Engagement of successful regional athletes by CARCIOM to tour the various CARICOM member states to provide motivational support based on the Liverpool Football Club model • Formation of a specific arm within CARICOM to deal with the development of athletics in the region as a whole.

31. Conclusion Thank you Questions and feedback