The Economy

There is an increasingly global consensus regarding the comparative merits of, and shift towards the adoption of electronic Government-to-Person (G2P) payments to replace cash. The emergence of the mobile phone as a low-cost, pervasive payments channel has fuelled this momentum. This study examines and presents considerations for the adoption of mobile G2P payments for the delivery of PATH benefits in Jamaica. Through the analysis of several country case studies and an examination of Jamaica’s current economic landscape and policy imperatives, the study makes the case for the use of a PPP-model of engagement for implementing a mobile PATH payments system that could become the cornerstone of a robust national mobile payments ecosystem.

Open Data has emerged as a progressive approach to issues of fiscal transparency, public sector efficiency and new job creation. Open Government Data (OGD) refers to government data and information that has been created or commissioned by a public entity which is made accessible for public use and reuse. While preliminary work has been undertaken in the Caribbean to explore the potential for open-data enabled interventions none of these studies have attempted to quantify the economic value associated with these open data opportunities. Specifically, this paper presents an estimation of the potential economic contribution of Open Data to the education, tourism and agricultural sectors, culminating with generic guidelines for developing Jamaica’s Open Data policy.

An overview of the insolvency regime in Jamaica and a proposal for the corporate rescue and rehabilitation reforms based on the best practices for insolvency, bankruptcy, receivership and administration in the Caribbean, U.K., Canada and the U.S.A.

Over the last decade, scrap metal theft has emerged as an epidemic across the globe. This paper draws lessons from the international scrap metal experience to inform the Jamaican context and makes policy recommendations for the effective regulation of the industry.

This paper evaluates the value of social partnerships as a governance tool for the Commonwealth Caribbean by examining the experiences of Botswana, Ireland and Barbados, as well as the less-than-successful attempts to implement a social partnership in Jamaica.

The continued use of government revenues to sustain public sector deficits has been highlighted as a major structural weakness by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has called for Public Sector Reform (PSR). This paper looks at success factors for PSR in Jamaica.

An overhaul of Jamaica’s tax system is long overdue, but maximizing the effectiveness of the reform process requires a clear sense of priority. This brief highlights the most pressing tax reform measures for improving the Jamaican economy. 

With the advent of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the EU and the Caribbean were forced to negotiate a more liberal Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) in 2008 and renounce many of their preferential trade relationships. This research examines the impact of the EPA on Caribbean states, showing it to be modest.