Economic growth and productivity in French Polynesia: a long-term analysis

Vincent Dropsy and Christian Montet

Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics, 2018, issue 499, 5-27

Abstract: [eng] After a very rapid economic boom in the sixties, due to the installation of the Pacific Testing Centre and the construction of airports in Tahiti and its islands, French Polynesia experienced an almost continuous decline in its growth during the next four decades, before plunging into an economic depression since 2009. This research analyses the factors of growth (labour, capital intensity, human capital, total factor productivity) in French Polynesia over the period 1960‑2006, after reconstituting long and consistent series of the variables studied and compares them with metropolitan France (including overseas Departments). Total factor productivity has been a negative contributor to growth over 1988‑1996 and since 2001. These long episodes of low total factor productivity could be indicative of the existence of significant structural barriers to growth, such as high costs typical of small island economies, as well as misallocation of resources due to a lack of entrepreneurial dynamism and an excess of protectionism.

JEL-codes: O47 O56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nse:ecosta:ecostat_2018_499_1

DOI: 10.24187/ecostat.2018.499s.1937

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