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I propose and test a new model determining the choice of the exchange rate regime in Latin America and the Caribbean. The key insight is that systemic level instability plays an important role in choosing the exchange rate regime. Using new data from Reinhart and Rogoff (2004), a second insight is that countries do not always follow the type of exchange rate regime they claim. Testing the determinants of regime choice against both the traditional, official de jure and new, market de facto data, I find that policymakers are strategically using the observed gap between the measures. The evidence reveals that systemic level variables, namely instability in the US interest rate and the bilateral USD:DEM/Euro exchange rate, significantly impact the choice of the exchange rate regime.

Research in the Caribbean often links global phenomena (e.g. increased tourism) to changes in lifestyles and mindsets taking place in this part of the world (Curtis, 2009). I examine the direction, intensity, and motivations of language changes among adolescents in three communities in Bequia (St. Vincent and the Grenadines) considering the socio-economic transformations affecting the island. Data for this study was obtained using a combination of sociolinguistic interviews and conversations between Bequia adolescents and their grandparents recorded in the course of several fieldwork trips. Three villages in Bequia were considered, Hamilton, Paget Farm and Mount Pleasant, characterised by different patterns of settlement and socioeconomic development. I investigate variation between: (i) creole verb stems vs. Standard English verb inflections (e.g. I go yesterday vs. I went yesterday), and (ii) verb stems and verb inflections vs. creole preverbal markers (e.g. I bin play yesterday). A variety of grammatical, discoursespecific, functional, and cognitive constraints are tested to determine which factors condition the variable patterns across different communities and age groups, and how linguistically similar/different these communities are. Results of the quantitative multivariate analysis of variation between bare verbs and inflected verbs show dialect levelling (Kerswill, 2003) among adolescents in Hamilton and Paget Farm and a transmission of the system (Labov, 2007) from the older generation to the younger in Mount Pleasant. In addition, adolescents in Paget Farm have recycled (Dubois and Horvath, 1999) a stigmatised creole form, preverbal bin, and are using it significantly more than any other group on the island. The study points to several important conclusions. Firstly, it emphasises the necessity for a multidisciplinary perspective in accounting for the factors which condition language change, especially in such a diverse and fast developing setting as the present-day Caribbean. Secondly, it supports the research on language and globalisation emphasising the relationship between the local and the global (e.g. Meyerhoff and Niedzielski, 2003). Finally, the study attempts to determine the nature of variation in creole languages as e.g. a creole continuum or co-existing systems, and establish replicable methods for measuring linguistic similarities/differences between communities.

The primary motivation behind this thesis was to examine how illicit drugs represent a multidimensional threat to the security of Pacific island states and the region as a whole. However, this research was presented with significant challenges before it began, which included the illegality of the subject matter, the confidentiality of law enforcement intelligence and the fact that there was a near total absence of academic research and statistics concerning drugs within the region. In order to overcome these challenges, this thesis blends a synthesis of conflict and security literature, reports from international and non-governmental organisations and the concepts of securitisation developed by Barry Buzan, Ole Waever & Jaap de Wilde in Security: A Framework for Analysis (1998). The domestic environment of the states that form the case studies are examined, the negative influences of drugs are presented and the perceptions and responses of the governments are discussed. Furthermore, the comparative aspect of this thesis, where two case studies are drawn from the Caribbean, Jamaica and Haiti, and two from the Pacific, Papua New Guinea and Fiji, ensures a thorough understanding of the complex challenges posed to state security, and provides a window for examining how states with similar characteristic and weaknesses are threatened by drugs. For example, throughout Papua New Guinea, marijuana has facilitated the acquisition of small arms and light weapons by both criminal groups and villages involved in conflict. In Fiji, there is the potential for the trafficking of drugs to destabilise the state by providing support to criminal groups and those currently involved with transnational criminal activities. This thesis concludes that the cultivation, production and trafficking of illicit drugs present an immediate and long-term threat to the Pacific, and that the security architecture for the region must be enhance to combat this formidable threat.

<p> <b>Problem</b> No formal study that considers the influence of the family, church, school, peers, media, and Adventist culture on the denominational loyalty, Christian commitment, and religious behavior of Adventist young people of Puerto Rico has previously been conducted. Therefore, pastors, parents, teachers, church leaders, and administrators have no data on which to base their assessment of the religiosity of Adventist young people. </p><p> <b>Method</b> This study used youth ages 14 to 21 from the youth sample of the <i>Avance PR</i> study conducted in 1995 in Adventist schools and churches in Puerto Rico. For the analysis, the sample was divided. When studying denominational loyalty, 704 baptized Adventist youth were used; when studying Christian commitment and religious behavior, 1,080 Adventist and non-Adventist youth were used. </p><p> <b>Results</b> The relationship between 34 family, church, school, peers, media, and Adventist culture independent variables and three religiosity dependent variables (denominational loyalty, Christian commitment, and religious behavior) was studied. Twenty-eight of the 34 variables had a significant relationship with all three religiosity variables: 10 family variables, seven church variables, one school variable, two peers variables, two media variables, and six Adventist culture variables. The remaining six variables had a significant relationship with only one or two of the three religiosity variables. The strength of relationships between religiosity and 22 of the independent variables varied by gender, age, family status, years lived in United States, and number of times families moved in last five years. </p><p> The model predicting denominational loyalty showed that youth are more likely to have a strong denominational loyalty when parents enforce Sabbath standards, there is a thinking environment in the church, quality sermons are preached in church, there is a warm environment in church, youth's best friends are religious, youth agree with Adventist standards, and youth agree with Sabbath standards. The model predicting Christian commitment showed that youth are more likely to have a strong commitment to Christ when there is unity in their families, there is a thinking environment in the church, there is a warm environment in the church, quality sermons are preached in the church, youth's best friends are religious, youth agree with Sabbath standards, and youth comply with at-risk standards. The model predicting religious behavior showed that youth are more likely to have a strong religious behavior when the parents lead frequent family worships, there is a thinking environment in the church, quality sermons are preached in the church, youth's best friends are Adventist, youth's best friends are religious, youth agree on Adventist standards, and youth agree on Sabbath standards. </p><p> The variables that appeared in all models of religiosity of youth were the church's thinking environment, the church's sermon quality, youth's best friends religiosity, and youth's agreement on Sabbath's standards. Furthermore, the strongest predictor for denominational loyalty was the youth's agreement on SDA standards; the strongest predictor for Christian commitment was family unity; and the strongest predictor for religious behavior was the church's thinking environment. </p><p> <b>Conclusions</b> My conclusions based on this study conducted in Puerto Rico are consistent with conclusions of other researchers in the United States that family, church, school, peers, media, and Adventist culture factors are important predictors of youth's denominational loyalty, Christian commitment, and religious behavior. Adventist culture and church have the strongest influence on denominational loyalty. Family and church have the strongest influence on Christian commitment. Church and Adventist culture have the strongest influence on religious behavior. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)</p>

<p> This phenomenological study examined the perceived adaptation experiences of English-speaking Caribbean K&ndash;12 immigrant students in American Schools through the telling of their stories. These stories were substantiated by their parents, and in some cases, close family friends, regarding their interactions with some American schools. The study was framed using Adaptation Theory which was supported by Bourdieu's Theory of Cultural Capital, Intercultural Communication Theory, John Ogbu's Cultural Ecological Theory, and Bowen's Family System Theory. The findings highlight the resiliency of students within this sample to adapt to significant changes in their new academic surroundings, navigate its inherent social structures, and experience progress in the face of challenges. Additionally, this study introduced factors that have contributed to the advancement of students and families within this population. Data gleaned from this study suggest that students from this population often outperform their American classmates. It also brings to the fore, a term coined by the researcher, reverse migration, which is a trend that may be widely practiced by members of this population. These findings may assist in evaluating the efficacy of existing policies pertaining to their placement, instruction, and in identifying gaps in addressing their academic needs.</p>

Weather and climate serve as an important travel motivator, influencing destination choice, the timing of travel, travel expenditures and overall trip satisfaction. Climatic resources are a defining factor in destination attractiveness and are a key element of the natural resource base of a destination that can be classified along a spectrum from ideal to unacceptable. A growing literature has sought to measure, evaluate and assess climate resources for tourism, both generally and for specific tourism market segments. A direct impact of climate change on tourism will be the global redistribution of climatic resources. This would change the length and quality of climate-sensitive tourism seasons, affecting both the temporal and spatial distribution of domestic and international tourism flows and spending. Studies have revealed a generally consistent temporal and geographical pattern of climate change impacts on global tourism. As the 21st century progresses, there is anticipated to be a pronounced shift in thermal comfort (and thereby tourism demand) towards higher latitudes and away from sub-tropical and tropical destinations. This would have a substantial impact on the tourism-intensive economy of the Caribbean, as the vast majority of the region’s attractions are based on weather- and climate-dependent 3S (sun, sea, sand) tourism. However, the assertion that major coastal tourism destinations, such as the Caribbean, will become seasonally ‘too hot’ for tourism has been questioned because the literature has not established what tourists to these regions perceive to be thermally unacceptable for coastal tourism activities. In addition, existing climate and tourism assessments do not account for the microclimatic conditions where tourism activities take place. With the inextricable dependency between 3S tourism and favourable weather conditions in the coastal zone, it is important to understand both how tourists perceive and evaluate climatic resources, particularly those conditions that are most preferred or avoided (i.e., trigger behavioural responses), as well as examine the adaptive climatic range tourists’ can experience within a coastal setting. Such information is a prerequisite if accurate projections are to be made about changes in tourism demand as a result of climate variability or future climate change. This dissertation proposes a conceptual framework that integrates the multiple facets known to influence tourists’ evaluation of climatic resources, as well as tourists’ responses to holiday weather conditions. The research advances weather and climate resource assessments for tourism by improving our understanding of the complex relationship between personal and meteorological parameters that influence tourists’ climatic preferences and thresholds for coastal tourism. This was achieved through concurrent meteorological measurements and in situ surveys with 472 beach tourists in the Caribbean islands of Barbados, Saint Lucia and Tobago. The results from this study reveal that tourists’ optimal and unacceptable climatic conditions are dependent on several interpersonal factors, with statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) found based on gender, age, and climatic region of origin. Thermal comfort expectations and perceived thermal control were also found to be key contextual considerations that enable beach tourists’ to not only be exposed to, but to prefer, thermal conditions that elicit strong to very strong heat stress. This indicates that conventional evaluation systems of thermal comfort (e.g., PET, UTCI) cannot be applied to 3S tourists without modification. This research also highlights the importance of microclimatic conditions when evaluating weather and climate for tourism, with thermo-physiological comfort varying up to 4°C within a coastal resort setting. The results from this research can be incorporated into existing climate indices and climate change assessments to allow for more robust projections of tourism demand, as well as used in various decision-making contexts by both tourists (e.g., plan best time/place to travel, plan appropriate accommodation, attire, transportation and activity schedule) and the tourism industry (e.g., marketing strategies, risk assessment, operational decision making, infrastructure planning and development).

In 2005, the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis officially closed the sugar industry, ending mono-crop agriculture and opening a space for a new chosen economic driver, tourism. Newly available lands, an agricultural- based workforce and a push into tourism led to this research examining the state of agricultural tourism development in a transitioning region. Interviews with key public and private sector personnel, coupled with an evaluation of official policies and plans, were used in this qualitative case study to explore the state of agricultural tourism development (opportunities and barriers) and the role that stakeholders play in its creation. This research not only found common geographic and technical barriers but also endemic mental and behavioural characteristics of the local populace, which hinder agricultural development and, by extension, agricultural tourism. Negative attitudes towards agriculture and a lack of entrepreneurial spirit pervade, which hampers agricultural tourism development. Hence, this research shows that local attitudes towards agriculture play an important role in successfully diversifying agriculture via tourism. Many studies focus on the addition of tourism to an agricultural product without first ensuring the successful production of agricultural products themselves so that agricultural tourism can develop. Hence, this research asserts the need for the agricultural industry to upgrade its products to meet expected tourism standards before moving into agricultural tourism. Additionally, for the successful development of agricultural tourism, there needs to be a focused and sustained plan aimed at changing the mindset of the local populace towards agriculture and entrepreneurship, coupled with the government providing a facilitative environment conducive to developing agricultural tourism.

In 1955 and 1966 Canada opened its doors to a limited number of Caribbean domestic workers and seasonal agricultural workers. Canadian government officials remarked that the programmes were part of Ottawa’s aid package to the Caribbean and that they would enhance trading relationships between Canada and the Caribbean, a view which had been echoed by other writers on the topic. This thesis argues that both programmes were instituted after Canada had exhausted all attempts to recruit adequate European labourers. The thesis also argues that both programmes were deliberately designed and executed to ensure that Canada got maximum benefits at low cost. Canada also attached unprecedented conditions to both schemes in an effort to significantly reduce the number of workers recruited. The thesis provides a thorough examination of the proposals by Caribbean governments, together with interest groups from Canada, to persuade Canada to establish these migrant programmes and the excuses and refusals by Canada to those proposals. The thesis documents the increasing recruitment of Mexican agricultural workers at the expense of Caribbean workers which further dispels the view that the migrant programmes were part of an aid package to the Caribbean. The thesis notes that unlike the domestic programme the agricultural programme was not a route towards landed immigrant status.