Profiling economic vulnerability and resilience in small states : conceptual underpinnings

Abstract

Small states are economically vulnerable because of their inherent proneness to exogenous shocks over which they can exercise very little control, if any. Such shocks in the main emanate from the small states’ structural openness to international trade, their high dependence on a narrow range of exports and their reliance on strategic imports, notably fuel and food. The high degree of fluctuations in GDP and in export earnings registered by many small states is considered as one of the manifestations of exposure to exogenous shocks. In spite of this, there are a number of small states that have managed to generate a relatively high GDP per capita. This is ascribed to their economic resilience, which refers to the policy-induced ability of an economy to recover from or adjust to the negative impacts of adverse exogenous shocks.