Basseterre Bay Road corridor
Cost–benefit analysis of coastal-resilience investment on the capital’s waterfront.
Professor of Economics · Associate Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences
The University of the West Indies, Mona
Leading Caribbean macroeconomist. Evidence for the decisions that move economies.
Andre Haughton advises governments, development funds and businesses on the decisions that shape Caribbean economies, from Green Climate Fund and Adaptation Fund appraisals to national budgets, economic impact studies and workplace financial wellness. His advice rests on 14 years of commissioned consultancy, two books with Palgrave Macmillan and peer-reviewed research in journals including Economic Modelling and Energy Economics.
Distinctions
- 2018Most Outstanding UWI Alumnus of the Decade, 1999–2008
- 2017IMF Distinguished Academic Fellow
- 2017Most Outstanding Researcher, Faculty of Social Sciences
- 2024Most Outstanding Research Project, Faculty of Social Sciences
Scholar: British Commonwealth (PhD) · Thomas De La Rue (MSc) · KPMG Peat Marwick (BSc)
Appointments: Jamaica Stock Exchange Best Practice Awards Committee, since 2015 (chairs the website committee)
Prof. Andre HaughtonKingston, Jamaica
IMF Fellow
Distinguished Academic Fellow of the International Monetary Fund, 2017
2 books
with Palgrave Macmillan on balance of payments and productivity in small countries
10+ papers
in journals including Economic Modelling and Energy Economics
270+
newspaper columns since 2012, in The Gleaner and the Jamaica Observer
Consultancy
Government and firm-level consultancies
Professor Andre Haughton is an independent economic consultant with more than 20 years in economics and 14 years of commissioned consultancy across the Caribbean. He provides the economic evidence that governments, development partners and climate funds rely on to approve and finance major investments: cost–benefit analysis, input–output modeling, economic and financial impact assessments, and willingness-to-pay studies for climate resilience, infrastructure and development projects.
Cost–benefit analysisEconomic and financial impact assessmentClimate change and resilienceWillingness-to-pay studies
Independent economic consultantCaribbean · since 2012
20+
years in economics
14
years of consultancy, since 2012
US$260M+
in project investment appraised
7
Caribbean countries served
Areas of expertise
What clients bring him in for
Analysis built to satisfy ministries of finance, boards and international funders, and explained so decision-makers can act on it.
Economic and financial appraisal
Cost–benefit analysis, NPV, EIRR and benefit–cost ratios, sensitivity testing, and the go or no-go case for major public investments.
Climate change and resilience
The economics of adaptation for Green Climate Fund and Adaptation Fund projects in water security, coastal protection and resilient infrastructure, working with project teams from concept to submission.
Economic and financial impact assessment
Full impact assessment reports built on input–output models, multipliers and linkages, measuring what a project, sector, institution or event is worth to the economy.
Willingness-to-pay and demand studies
Household surveys and demand analysis that show whether users will pay for a service and whether a project can sustain itself.
Macroeconomics and public finance
Balance of payments, exchange rates, inflation, national budgets and debt in small open economies.
Firms, productivity and financial wellness
Productivity diagnostics and staff financial-literacy programs.
Track record
Selected assignments
Governments and development partners
SKN TransWater Programme
Economic and financial assessment for a program to double the national water supply.
Willingness-to-pay analysis
Household surveys and analysis of what residents will pay for a reliable water supply, for the TransWater Programme.
Council of Community Colleges of Jamaica
The colleges’ linkages and multiplier effects across the economy.
Citizen’s Guide to the National Budget
The national budget in plain language, built through public consultation.
JCDC Festival, 2012–2017
The economic contribution of the national festival competition.
Balance of payments and foreign exchange
Forty years of Jamaica’s foreign-exchange flows, for the Edward Seaga Research Institute.
Environmental Regulations Agency
Economist on the team that prepared the Green Paper and national policy framework.
Where the work has been
- Jamaica
- St Kitts and Nevis
- Barbados
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Guyana
- Saint Lucia
Including the region-wide Caribbean Premier League impact study.
Firms and organizations
Caribbean Premier League
Impact assessment and cost–benefit analysis for every host country.
Demand for climate-resilient buildings
Market demand for resilient housing and agricultural warehousing.
Clients and funders of work Andre has led or contributed to
Green Climate FundAdaptation FundWorld BankCHASE FundCaribbean Community Climate Change CentreGovernment of JamaicaDigicelJCDCVistaprintCaribbean Cement CompanyHardware & Lumber
Need evidence a minister, board or fund will trust?
From a feasibility study for a funding proposal to an economic impact assessment or a staff financial wellness program, Andre delivers analysis built to withstand scrutiny.
Areas of thought
Four questions that shape a small nation's future
His research runs from applied macroeconomics and econometrics to the practical choices facing central banks, ministries of finance and firms across the region.
01
Productivity and growth
Why output per worker stalls in small economies, and how skills, management and innovation in firms can lift it.
02
Money, finance and digital payments
Monetary policy and inflation, the long-run neutrality of money, and how trust shapes the adoption of digital payments and JAM-DEX.
03
The external constraint
Balance of payments sustainability, foreign exchange, public debt and the exposure of small open economies to global shocks.
04
Climate and development finance
The economic and financial case for adaptation investment in Caribbean small island developing states.
Signature framework
The Macroeconomic Operating System
Why do economies that stabilize still fail to grow? Andre's framework treats an economy as an operating system: six resources feed six processes, and completed processes feed value back into the resources. Five hindrances can break that loop and leave an economy stable but stuck, in deadlock. Switch one on below to see where it bites.
How to read this
When resources meet a process's requirements, the process completes and its value flows back to expand the resource base, so the economy climbs. Hindrances raise the effective requirement without adding resources, so the loop stalls even when resources seem sufficient. A deadlocked economy is stable, but stuck.
Resource Process Blocked by a hindrance
Publications
Lessons from Jamaica for small countries everywhere
Palgrave Macmillan, 2017
Lessons from macroeconomic deadlock in Jamaica. Grew out of a 40-year study of foreign-currency flows for the Edward Seaga Research Institute, and was presented to the IMF in Washington.
Palgrave Macmillan, 2023
With Wendel Ivey. Evidence that most Jamaican industries could hold output steady with less labor, and what that means for wages and policy.
Cash, Control and Connectivity
Andre Haughton
Forthcoming
Digital payment adoption in Jamaica, drawn from a national survey, with trust in government as a measurable barrier.
Escaping Macroeconomic Deadlock
Andre Haughton
Forthcoming
The Art of Macroeconomic Management. How developing economies break out of low-growth traps, first presented at the IEA–IDB roundtable marking 100 years since Arthur Lewis's birth.
Selected research
All publications- Interest rate volatility, asymmetric pass-through and the monetary transmission mechanism: Asia, the Caribbean and the USEconomic Modelling, 2012 · with Emma Iglesias
- The value of the US dollar and its impact on oil pricesEnergy Economics, 2018 · with Roger McLeod
- Monetary policy and stock prices: a comparison between the Caribbean and the USApplied Financial Economics, 2013 · with Emma Iglesias
- Assessing long-run money neutrality in monetary unionsInternational Journal of Finance and Economics, 2013 · with Emma Iglesias
- Measuring the sustainability and effectiveness of social value creation in developing countriesAcademy of Entrepreneurship Journal, 2014 · Distinguished Research Best Paper Award
Public commentary
Latest articles
Columns in the Jamaica Observer and The Gleaner on inflation, debt, productivity, trade and Jamaica's place in a changing world economy, with the data behind every claim.
The Gleaner Briefing has run since December 2012, with more than 270 columns. They are being collected into a book, Chronicles of a Small Open Economy.
Read all articles
May 2026
Jamaica’s slow recovery and reconstruction enter dangerous territory
The economy contracted for two straight quarters after Hurricane Melissa. Why the pace of reconstruction now poses serious risks.
Mar 2026Jamaica Observer
Oil, war, trade and the Caribbean economy
How the conflict involving the United States and Iran is disrupting oil and gas supplies, and what higher energy prices mean for Caribbean economies.
Feb 2026Jamaica Observer
Fiscal turning point: Jamaica’s first tax increase in a decade
What the first new taxes in almost ten years mean after hurricanes Beryl and Melissa, and why productivity decides whether the economy can carry them.
Feb 2026Jamaica Observer
Jamaica’s history of underproduction, fragmentation, and loss of coordination
The historical roots of Jamaica’s low productivity, and the case for organizing production at scale.
Financial literacy
The Money Dr.
Your wealth is your health.
National prosperity starts in the household. The Money Dr. is Andre's free financial check-up for people who earn but struggle to save: it diagnoses where your money goes and prescribes a plan to reach your goals.
Take the free check-up
Free · No account needed · About two minutes
- 1
Check-up
Answer a few questions about your income, spending, debt and savings. You get a Money Health Score and a breakdown of what is helping and hurting it.
- 2
Prescription
Set your budget and your goals. The app shows how long each goal will take at your current rate, where the gap could come from, and how much sooner investing could get you there.
- 3
Consultation
For a personal plan, book a one-on-one session with the Money Dr. Your figures stay on your device unless you choose to send your check-up.
For employers
The Money Dr. for your staff
The Money Dr., delivered to your whole team. Each employee takes the free check-up, then Andre coaches the group through their results in practical sessions on budgeting, clearing debt and saving toward their own goals. Financially secure staff are more focused, more productive and more likely to stay.
Staff sessions delivered for Vistaprint · Caribbean Cement Company · Hardware & Lumber
At The UWI
Building the next generation of Caribbean economists
Associate Dean for Partnerships in the Faculty of Social Sciences, leading a drive to fund 150 new scholarships. Founder of the Social Sciences Cannabis Research Group, where more than 100 students have trained in field research, and the Office of Research in Contemporary Economics and Finance. Teaches econometrics and supervises doctoral research.
Partner with the FacultyInnovation
Economics in practice, built in Jamaica
Founder and CEO of Textron Technology, which designs consumer AI products in Jamaica for global markets. Its first product, AiDiA My BFF, is an AI companion bear sold in the United States and Jamaica.
Visit myaidia.comCommunity
The Valley Foundation
Founded in Mount Salem, Montego Bay, in 2011. The Foundation mentors inner-city youth, supplies school materials, and builds social enterprises where young people can earn an income and create value in their own communities.
Support the FoundationSpeaking
Conference presentations and keynote addresses
21 refereed conference papers since 2005, from the World Finance Conference to the central banks of the Caribbean, plus keynotes to professional bodies, investors and graduating classes.
Refereed conference papers
- 2022West Indies Economic Conference, Kingston
- 2019Caribbean Summit on Youth Violence Prevention, Georgetown
- 2017International Monetary Fund, Washington DC
- 2017West Indies Economic Conference, Kingston
- 2017Symposium on Cannabis Policy, UWI Global Campus, Dominica
- 2017UWI Faculty of Medical Sciences Annual Conference
- 2016World Finance Conference, New York
- 2015Arthur Lewis Centenary Roundtable (IEA, RIDGE and IDB), Santa Cruz, Bolivia
- 2015Eastern Economic Association, New York
- 2015Caribbean Monetary Studies Conference, Bank of Guyana
- 2014Caribbean Monetary Studies Conference, Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago
- 2014Road to UNGASS Roundtable, UWI Mona
- 2013World Finance and Banking Symposium, Beijing
- 2013Caribbean Monetary Studies Conference, Bank of Jamaica
- 2012World Finance Conference, Rio de Janeiro
- 2012Caribbean Monetary Studies Conference, Central Bank of Barbados
- 2012Allied Academics Conference, Las Vegas — Best Paper Award
- 2012Caribbean Studies Association Conference, Guadeloupe
- 2011Bank of Jamaica Research Conference, Kingston
- 2011Conference on the Economy, UWI St Augustine
- 2005Southwestern Economics Conference, New Orleans
Keynotes, panels and policy forums
- 2026The Moneague College, Kenneth Anderson Research Day (keynote)
- 2026Jamaica Stock Exchange Conference, panel on delivering monetary policy and financial stability in a changing world
- 2025UWI Department of Economics public forum: Hurricane Melissa, economic recovery and climate resilience (featured panelist)
- 2025Third Global South Think Tanks Dialogue, China (representing The UWI)
- 2025UWI Budget Forum
- 2023UWI–CAF Knowledge Forum: Productivity and the Political Economy in Small Countries
- 2022VM Wealth Forum: the global economic recovery after COVID-19
- 2019Council of Community Colleges of Jamaica Annual Conference
- 2018VM Investments and Barita Investments post-budget forums
- 2017Small Business Association of Jamaica, Caribbean MSME Conference
- 2017Institute of Internal Auditors, Annual General Assembly
- 2017Institute of Chartered Accountants of Jamaica: Taxation Seminar and PAIB Conference
- 2016Jamaica Climate Smart Agriculture Symposium
- 2013Jamaica Association of Insurers and Financial Advisors
- 2013Public Sector Senior Management Development Programme Leadership Forum
- 2013Public forums at the Mona School of Business and Management and UTech
- 2012HEART Trust NTA, Southwest TVET Institute
Graduation and school addresses
- 2026Christel House Jamaica, Grade 6 Transition Ceremony
- 2024Green Pond High School
- 2024Whitter’s Institute
- 2023Cornwall College and Mount Alvernia High School joint graduation
- 2023Ferncourt High School
- 2018Cornwall College
- 2017Brown Town High School
- 2016Glenmuir High School, money-management session
- 2014Courts Scholarship Award Ceremony
- Spot Valley High School
Photos: Unsplash (Patrick Pahlke · Marwen Larafa · Kane Reinholdtsen · Bunly Hort · Dani · Hugh Whyte · Iain · Jakub Żerdzicki · Kyle Cleveland · MD Duran · Mathias Reding · Matthew Osborn · Olga Subach · S O C I A L . C U T · Samantha Weisburg · Zoshua Colah).
Work with Andre
Commission a study or book a keynote
Describe the project, event or question, and Professor Haughton will reply by email.
Prefer email? Write to andre@andrehaughton.com.
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