Both Sides of The Coin: The Story of The Central Bank of Barbados 1972-2017

214 early to mid-1970s. Articles which dealt with this topic included Gittens’ 1978 paper on controlling inflation, referred to earlier, and Price Trends in Barbados, 1968-1973 (Francis, 1975), which concluded that import prices were the most important determinant of domestic inflation. The vast majority of the remaining articles during this period concentrated on real sector activity. These included papers on food production by Francis (1975) and the sugar industry by Phillips (1977). Cox, in 1976, drew attention to the absence of significant linkages between manufacturing and other economic sectors and, in his 1978 paper on energy, advocated the need to rationalise usage, pursue conservation and seek alternative sources. While there were several drafts on public finance and the external sector, few of them reached the publication stage. Although every draft was not good enough for publication, more often than not it enhanced the researcher’s understanding of how the Barbadian and other Caribbean economies functioned. Scholarly publications - the output After using the formative years to hone investigative and writing skills, the Bank’s research programme picked up momentum. The yearly average of published research papers rose from 2.6 in the 1970s to 6.5 during the 1980s and 10.1 in the 1990s. The average fell during the 2000- 2010 period, perhaps reflecting the increased turn-over rate in the Research Department; there was some pick-up between 2011 and 2016, but this resulted from an historically high output of papers (26) in 2011. Not only did the quantum of publications rise over time, but the topics which were covered and the range of journals and other outlets also increased. During the 1970s, as the economists worked on improving their writing and analytical skills, most (68 per cent) of the published articles appeared in the Quarterly Report . Between 1980 and 1989, the Bank’s publications were the outlet for about 57 per cent of the articles but there was also a marked increase in papers published in journals or in books edited by staff or other authors. For example, DeLisle Worrell’s first book,