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Araujo, Jorge Thompson

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Latin America, Caribbean, income distribution, economic growth, public finance
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Last updated: March 21, 2025
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Jorge Thompson Araujo is a senior collaborating researcher at the Department of Economics of the University of Brasilia, Brazil, and a senior consultant for the World Bank. Before his retirement from the World Bank in 2021, he was practice manager of the Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment Global Practice for the Latin America and the Caribbean region. Previously, he was an associate professor of economics at the University of Brasilia. He has published widely in the areas of economic growth, functional distribution of income, and public finance. He co-authored the World Bank regional report Beyond Commodities: The Growth Challenge in Latin America and the Caribbean in the Latin America Development Forum series. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, and an MSc in economics from the University of Brasilia.

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2020 - 202522000 - 20192
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    Competition and Productivity Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21) Vostroknutova, Ekaterina; Sampi, James; Jooste, Charl; Araujo, Jorge Thompson
    Competition is a core element of economic growth, but empirical evidence on how competition affects productivity is often limited. Competition and Productivity Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean presents new empirical research that shows how competition policy in the region has effectively boosted productivity growth and improved market outcomes. “A must-read if you are interested in understanding the relationship between competition law, competition enforcement, growth, and productivity in Latin America. A report rich with data, analysis, and recommendations that will guide policy makers in the region.” —Antonio Capobianco Deputy Head of Competition Division, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) “This is a very important work both for economists and competition law scholars, the latter of whom have long taken for granted that antitrust enforcement and increased competition contribute to economic growth. While journal articles have explored this relationship, this is one of the first books to examine the issue deeply and systematically. I only wish that this volume had been published earlier, as it would have certainly benefited my own work on the subject tremendously.” —Thomas Cheng Professor and Associate Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong, and author of Competition Law in Developing Countries “It is critical to understand how competition and competition policy affect productivity growth, the key to economic development. This book makes big strides forward in understanding these connections. It takes advantage of novel antitrust enforcement and other legal data to build evidence-based insights into how competition policies can best encourage productivity growth. There is much to be learned inside.” —Chad Syverson George C. Tiao Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
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    Latin America and the Caribbean Economic Review, April 2024 - Competition: The Missing Ingredient for Growth?
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-04-10) Maloney, William F.; Garriga, Pablo; Meléndez, Marcela; Morales, Raúl; Jooste, Charl; Sampi, James; Araujo, Jorge Thompson; Vostroknutova, Ekaterina
    Latin America and the Caribbean has made slow but consistent progress addressing the imbalances induced by the pandemic in an international environment that is just now showing signs of stabilizing. Despite favorable macroeconomic management, high interest rates and fiscal imbalances remain challenging while growth rates remain lackluster due to long-standing structural issues. Looking forward, an aging workforce and rising violence will increasingly complicate policy. This report focuses particularly on weak competitive forces as a source of low productivity, low growth, and low welfare in LAC. It emphasizes the need for effective competition institutions, pro-competition regulatory frameworks, complementary policies to improve the capabilities of workers and firms, and enhanced innovation systems, to prepare local industries to reach the technological frontier and face global competition. Furthermore, the report underscores the need for reforms to prevent large businesses from exerting undue political influence over policy decisions.
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    Benchmarking the Determinants of Economic Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-12) Araujo, Jorge Thompson; Brueckner, Markus; Clavijo, Mateo; Vostroknutova, Ekaterina; Wacker, Konstantin M.
    The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region has seen a decade of remarkable growth and income convergence. Growth has been a key driver for reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity. It has been debated how much of this decade of growth has been driven by policy reforms and how much was due to the favorable external conditions. While external factors were supportive and relevant, the effect of domestic policies was just as relevant for explaining LAC's recent growth performance. The emphasis of domestic policy has shifted from stabilization policies to structural policies. In addition, a benchmarking exercise reveals which policy gaps will lead to the highest potential growth-payoffs for each country and helps identify potential trade-offs. The authors analyze growth in LAC using descriptive statistics and growth econometrics. The authors use these results for explaining the pattern of growth in LAC over the last decade, for looking ahead, and to identify potential policy gaps.
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    Beyond Commodities: The Growth Challenge of Latin America and the Caribbean
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2016-11-02) Araujo, Jorge Thompson; Vostroknutova, Ekaterina; Brueckner, Markus; Clavijo, Mateo; Wacker, Konstantin M.
    Beyond Commodities shows that Latin America and the Caribbean’s growth performance over the last decade cannot be reduced to the commodity boom: growth-promoting reforms that strengthened financial development, increased trade openness and improved infrastructure development also played a significant role and can continue doing so. Based on the econometric analysis of panel data from the 1970-2010 period for 126 countries, the study shows that, while the commodity boom facilitated growth in most of the region, it did not determine it. Domestic pro-growth policies and the maintenance of a sound macro-fiscal framework played a central role in explaining the region’s good performance during last decade. It also shows that new growth “stars” such as Panama, Peru, Colombia and the Dominican Republic emerged during this period. In addition, a benchmarking exercise reveals which policy gaps will lead to the highest potential growth-payoffs for each country and helps identify potential trade-offs. Finally, with the worsening of external conditions, the authors conclude that the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have no choice but to turn their attention to domestic drivers to keep growth going, as the structural reforms agenda remains unfinished.