Janiel McEwan is a Jamaican economist, researcher, writer, and commentator focused on economics, policy, and social development. Founder of The McEwan Index, he translates data into insight on Jamaica and the Caribbean region and beyond.
A framework for seeing the forms of harm that homicide statistics cannot capture By Janiel McEwan, Economist and Researcher Opening It is six in the morning in Montego Bay and a woman is walking to catch a route taxi. She has already made three decisions before the sun is fully
Janiel McEwan, Economist and Researcher Seprod's decision to temporarily lay off 141 workers has been read as a verdict on Jamaica's new sugar tax. The truth is more complicated, and more useful, than that. There is a version of this story that begins with a number:
A country can look healthier on paper while its households feel the walls closing in. The distinction between macroeconomic stability and household economic security is where this story lives. Janiel McEwan, Economist and Researcher Ask a taxi driver in Half-Way Tree, a teacher in Mandeville, or a nurse coming
A Jamaican EdTech pioneer is asking shareholders to approve a new name, a wider mandate and open-ended share-issuance powers, all while its auditors flag material uncertainty about its ability to continue as a going concern. By Janiel McEwan, Economist and Researcher There is a particular kind of irony
By Janiel McEwan, Economist and Researcher On the evening of Sunday, September 6, 2026, a congregation gathered at a church in south London for a service of "remembrance, justice and repair." Jamaica's Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Olivia Grange, sat among them, a day
What Late Filings Cost Jamaican Investors By Janiel McEwan, Economist and Researcher Opening: The Notice It arrives the way these notices always arrive. No press conference. No warning on the evening news. Just a short filing on the Jamaica Stock Exchange website, timestamped, formally worded, and easy to miss if
Jamaica's health ministry says it will name the institutions and officers behind more than 1,000 patient complaints. The harder question is why a technically capable health system keeps losing the trust of the people it treats. Janiel McEwan, Economist and Researcher Imagine a woman lying in a
Matthew Samuda, Jamaica's Drought Crisis, and the Long Fight to Rebuild a Nation's Water Infrastructure Janiel McEwan, Economist and Researcher Prologue: The Dry Pipe At six in the morning in Liguanea, the tap runs. By nine, it doesn't. Since August 3, National Water Commission
Janiel McEwan, Economist and Researcher The McEwan Index — Economic Research & Policy Analysis Jamaica has just done something rare in public finance. It built a compensation system meant to correct decades of distortion in how the state pays the people who run it, and it is now living with the
The Panama Canal Is Running Out of Water. Jamaica Should Be Paying Attention. Janiel McEwan, Economist and Researcher A ship does not run out of water. An engine does not stall for lack of rain. And yet, from September 3, the number of vessels permitted to cross one of the