A small island territory moving down the ‘development ladder’? A case study of Jersey

Abstract

The small island economy of Jersey in the Channel Islands is one of the world’s most economically successful offshore financial centres. Jersey has long demonstrated its ability to respond to changing economic circumstances as it has adopted policies conducive to good economic, social, political and environmental governance. Over the last twenty years, there have been a growing number of challenges to the island’s economic resilience. Foremost among these have been regulatory threats to the finance industry; the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and its aftermath; faltering growth in productivity; growing expectations of increased and better public service provision; and weak political governance. In line with the literature that argues there is a three-way taxonomy of small-island socioeconomic formations, comprising MIRAB, PROFIT and SITE types, this paper considers the recent challenges to Jersey’s economic resilience and its place on the ‘development ladder’. The paper concludes that Jersey’s experiences offers salient warnings to other successful small jurisdictions.