The second criterion of a minimum per capita GDP is designed to provide us with a selection of countries with a certain development sta- tus. Otherwise, size effects and effects associated with the economic de- velopment status might easily be confused. We are mainly interested in highly developed VSC, because they generally have a fully developed public sector which can be properly compared with larger countries. Since some of the selected countries are near this arbitrary margin, the results for them should be treated with caution.81They do not, however, blur the overall picture. Table A.8 in the Appendix presents some basic facts on the 21 countries selected. The countries in Table 4.4 with a po- pulation of less than 500,000 inhabitants have not been considered due to a too low per capita GNP (in $ 
US). 4.3.1 Theoretical expectations versus reality – monetary system The first public good under examination is the monetary system of the 21 VSC. The structure of the table presented here and of the tables in the following sections is similar. Some of the tables , however, have to be dis- played in an Appendix due to their length. The important characteristics and our theoretical predictions according to Hypothesis 1 are repeated in the upper part of the table. Table A.9 in the Appendix on the mone- tary system in VSC displays the costs of in-house production and pro- vision of the public good in a VSC («very high»), the cost difference be - tween the two provision arrangements VSC and FPUBL in ordinal units (maximum: 5 units; minimum: 0 units) and our theoretical expectation. The lower part of Table A.9 (and of the tables in the following sec- tions) confronts this theoretical expectation with the actual organiza - tional choice in each of the 21 selected VSC in order to test Hypothesis 1. As to the provision of a monetary system, our test concentrates on the existence of an own currency, which is one of the most important features of a country’s monetary system. We presume in line with the ar- 90 
Very small countries: organizational choice and international outsourcing 81These countries are namely: Belize (GNP/capita: $ US 2700), Dominica ($ 3090), Grenada ($ 2880), Micronesia ($ 2070), St. Lucia ($ 3500) and St. Vincent and the Grenadines ($ 2370) (based on data from Baratta ($ 1999) as of 1996).