Research & Publications
Articles, studies, and reports
This section brings together long-form analyses and research work, along with two World Bank reports produced with the Directorate of Economic Studies (DEE) of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF).
Articles
Research · Mathematics and economics · 6 October 2026
Unfolding the Crisis: What Geometry Teaches the Haitian Economy
The work of the Haitian mathematician Ruben Louis deals with the points where the ordinary tools of geometry stop working. The article draws from it a method for an economy that standard models can no longer describe: stop looking for a single parameter where the answer depends on the path of approach, measure the room for maneuver actually open to economic agents, and tell what is spinning idly apart from what actually moves something. It proposes three research projects and argues for making mathematics a matter of public policy.
Autopsie · Disaster risk economics · 28 August 2026
Haiti and the Next Major Earthquake: The Cost We Can Already Measure
An economic and financial reading of earthquake risk: potential losses, fiscal capacity, the concentration of credit in the Ouest department, and the shortfall in pre-arranged disaster financing. The analysis puts the orders of magnitude on a common scale without presenting any scenario as a forecast.
Institutional reports
Report
Haiti: Let’s Talk Competition. A Brief Review of Market Conditions
A review of competitive conditions in the Haitian economy: market concentration, the structure of business groups and their affiliated companies, the customs treatment of the main importers, and an international comparison of retail prices. The report is the sectoral background document for the Systematic Country Diagnostic Haiti: Toward a New Narrative.
- Led by
- Georgiana Pop, Senior Economist, Competition Policy Specialist
- Co-authors, MEF
- Edouard Nsimba, Réginald Surin, Clifford Reginald Nau, Dominique des Hommes, Jimy Dorsainvil
The report was co-authored by a team consisting of Edouard Nsimba, Principal
Advisor on macroeconomic policies and economic modeling at the Ministry of Economy
and Finance (MEF), Reginald Surin, Clifford Reginald Nau, Dominique des Hommes,
Jimy Dorsainvil all Economists at MEF who provided valuable contributions and
support to obtaining the required data used in this analysis.
Acknowledgments, p. v.
The report thus names its co-authors in its acknowledgments. The bibliographic citation prescribed by the publisher, for its part, lists only the lead author: Pop, Georgiana. 2016. “Haiti, Let’s Talk Competition: A Brief Review of Market Conditions.” World Bank, Washington, DC. The two credits coexist in the institution’s editorial practice. For bibliographic purposes, it is the second that counts.
Report
Diagnostic sur l’impact économique et budgétaire des désastres en Haïti
A quantification of the impact of natural disasters on economic activity and on public finances. The report puts figures on the damage and losses caused by Hurricane Jeanne (2004), by the series of storms Gustav, Fay, Hanna, and Ike (2008), and by the earthquake of 12 January 2010, whose impact amounted to 117% of GDP, then measures the capacity of the state budget to absorb a shock of this kind. It proposes a road map for the financial management of disaster risk, based on the cost-utility ratio.
- Led by
- Michel Matera, senior disaster risk management specialist
- Team
- Oscar Anil Ishizawa, Rafael Van der Borght, Edouard Nsimba, Isabelle Simon, Wilder Dorsaint, Réginald Surin
- Framework
- Disaster Risk Management and Reconstruction Project (P126346)
- Funding
- European Union, ACP-EU Natural Disaster Risk Reduction Program, administered by the GFDRR
This report was prepared by a team led by Michel Matera (Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist, GSURR) and comprising Oscar Anil Ishizawa (Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist, GSURR), Rafael Van der Borght (Disaster Risk Management Specialist, GSURR) and Edouard Nsimba (Principal Adviser for Macroeconomic Analysis, DEE of the MEF), Isabelle Simon (Economist, DEE), Wilder Dorsaint (Economist, DEE), Reginald Surin (Economist, DEE).
Acknowledgments, p. 5.
The document carries no prescribed bibliographic citation. The copyright page says 2014, yet the text cites the Sendai Framework, adopted in March 2015, and data finalized in the fall of 2014: the date it was posted online is therefore later than the year printed on the work.
Lightweight version for slow connections: full text, original pagination, recompressed illustrations. Full-resolution facsimile, 14 MB ↓
Rights
The World Bank permits the reproduction of this report, in whole or in part, for non-commercial purposes, provided the source is fully cited and acknowledged. This site carries no advertising and no paid content.
Other work
These studies are separate from the “Autopsie” column. They belong to research proper, on questions that the column format does not allow to be treated with the necessary apparatus. The full texts will be posted here as they become available; in the meantime, they can be requested by email.
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Price Instability and the Dynamics of Term Savings in Haiti
What inflation does to the willingness of households and firms to tie up their money. The relationship is examined using a vector error correction model, which separates what belongs to short-term adjustment from what belongs to a long-run equilibrium.
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Estimating the Impact of the Petroleum Subsidy on the Haitian Economy
The fiscal cost of the subsidy, how it is actually distributed among households by income level, and the effect of lifting it on prices and economic activity.
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The Haitian Economy from 2000 to 2018
A reconstruction of potential output over two decades, and a measure of the gap between it and observed output. The exercise serves to distinguish, in the stops and starts of Haitian growth, what is due to the business cycle from what is due to productive capacity itself.
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An Attempt to Estimate the Determinants of Employment in Haiti
Which macroeconomic variables explain the level of employment in Haiti, and in what proportions. The question matters for assessing what a growth policy can really deliver in terms of jobs.
Citing this work
The two World Bank reports may be cited and reproduced for research or teaching purposes, with attribution. For a data request, a methodological clarification, or the text of any of the works above, write to the address given on the contact page.
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