Macroeconomics: Fall 2025
Alyssa Giarusso, Anthony Landro, Anna Laska, Macy Luchyn, and Katie Mccoy
Capital: Oranjestad
Population: 108,000–109,353
Currency: Aruban Florin (AWG) 1 AWG = .56 USD
Real GDP: $4.32 billion
GDP Per Capita: $41,498
Inflation Rate: 0.8%
Unemployment Rate: 4.3%
Gini Coefficient: N/A
Life Expectancy: 77 years old
CO₂ emissions per capita: 4.94 metric tons (2023)
Air Quality Index: 40-99
Capital: Washington D.C
Population: 342,034,432
Currency: Dollar 1 USD = 1.80 AWG
Real GDP: $23.77 Trillion
GDP per capita: $89,000 - $90,000
Inflation rate: 3.0%
Unemployment rate: 4.1%- 4.4%
Gini coefficient: 0.42
Life expectancy: 78 Years Old
Air Quality Index: 39
Capital: Albany N.Y
Population: 19,867,248
Currency: 1 USD = 1.80 AWG
Real GDP: $1.79 Trillion
GDP per capita: $92,341 - $116,883
Inflation rate: 3.0%
Unemployment rate: 4.0%
Gini coefficient: 0.52
Life expectancy: 81 Years Old
Air Quality Index: 57
Capital: N/A
Population: 1,627,788
Currency: 1 USD= 1.80 AWG
Real GDP: $939 Billion
GDP per capita: $200,000
Inflation rate: 3.1%
Unemployment rate: 5.2%
Gini coefficient: 0.55
Life expectancy: 83 Years Old
Air Quality Index: 36
Population Size
Aruba's population is significantly smaller than that of the United States, New York, and Manhattan, which overall can limit the size of the economy and workforce of the country. Larger and more diverse populations, like those of the United States and New York, make it easier to support a wider range of industries and higher economic output.
GDP & GDP per Capita
Aruba's total GDP and GDP per capita are lower than those of the United States, New York, and Manhattan. Although Aruba is considered a high-income economy, it is at a smaller scale than these other economies it is being compared to. This means the island has fewer job opportunities and lower economic production and efficiency in general. In comparison, Manhattan, New York, and the US all benefit from more developed industries like technology, business, and finance, thus allowing the income levels and living standards to be higher than in Aruba.
Service-Based Economy
All of these regions gain value from tourism and real estate. However, Aruba depends much more heavily on tourism as its sole economic driver. It is also a primary source of employment and revenue for the island. The U.S., New York, and Manhattan still include tourism and real estate as important parts of the economy; however, these categories exist with other sectors like finance, media, and other services.
Economic Resilience
The area where all of these economies vary the most is economic Resilience. Since Aruba's economy is so densely concentrated in tourism, major economic shocks like recessions, lack of travel, or pandemics can have much more severe and immediate impacts. On the other hand, the United States, New York, and Manhattan, although still affected by these shocks, can soften the blow of these disruptions because of the diverse industries and stronger sectors of their economies. This suggests that Aruba has higher vulnerability and inequality risks during periods of crisis.
Geography
The type of location of these areas is very important to the way that the economy functions. As a small island, Aruba is more exposed to climate risks and depends on imports for many of its goods. The United States and New York benefit from being a larger land mass with multiple ports and transportation networks. This provides the United States with more opportunities to develop a more stable and resilient economy.
Closing Comparisons
Overall, Aruba, the United States, and New York share many similarities with each other as service-based, high-income economies, focusing on how they rely on tourism and real estate. However, Aruba's smaller population, lower GDP, and heavy dependence on tourism make the economy more vulnerable to shocks. Geographic limitations, climate risks, and reliance on imports restrict Aruba's capability to expand its economy in comparison to the United States and New York. These differences can help to explain why larger and more diverse regions can support long-term growth and stability, while Aruba faces greater economic struggles despite its high-income status on paper.
Major Environmental Challenges
Currently, Aruba is struggling with many major environmental challenges, including declining ecosystem health, pollution, and extreme weather.
Specifically, Aruba's coastal and marine environments are under attack from existing expanding coastal development, overuse, and fragmentation. As a result of declining ecosystem health, natural barriers against storms are weakened (Gruber).
Pollution is another major environmental challenge that the island of Aruba continues to face. Aruba's National Population Density of 598 persons per square kilometer has almost doubled since 1961, which has resulted in highly developed tourism districts (Gruber). In addition to the population growth, 46% of households are located in coastal residential areas, further harming the surrounding environment and contributing to pollution (Gruber).
Further disruption to ecosystems in Aruba can be seen as a result of extreme weather events. Aruba struggles with extreme heat events such as "heat domes" and "marine heat waves", which result in an increase of heat-related illnesses and a negative effect on productivity (Gruber).
Climate Change
Factors like extreme heat, rising sea level, and coastal erosion are contributing to climate change and pose a large threat to Aruba as a whole. Currently, extreme heat waves in Aruba last for around 3 months; however, by the year 2100, extreme heat is projected to last for an unbearable 7 months (Gruber).
Effects on
GDP: Environmental challenges and climate risks will lower GDP growth as a result of their threat to tourism and overall productivity.
Population: Aruba is currently experiencing a rapidly aging population. Environmental challenges like extreme heat and pollution are especially hazardous for these groups and may result in an eventual decrease in population.
Inflation: Environmental challenges like extreme heat result in higher energy demand for cooling, which will, in turn, raise inflation for essential goods.
Unemployment: As of 2023, tourism in Aruba makes up more than 88% of employment (Gruber). Environmental challenges and their threat to tourism will inevitably raise unemployment.
Policy Initiatives
On April 22, 2024, the National Climate Resilience Council (NCRC) was launched to help implement projects and policies to strengthen Aruba's environment and climate. The NCRC has "supervised the creation of the Climate Impact Atlas," which is a detailed map that highlights environmental issues that Aruba faces, like a rise in sea level and extreme weather conditions (Gruber). In addition, in April of 2024, Aruba implemented a constitutional amendment to improve environmental rights. The amendment specifically recognizes a right to "a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment" (Gruber).
Population, total for Aruba. (2025). Retrieved from https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/POPTOTAWA647NWDB
Life expectancy at birth, total (years) - Aruba. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.IN?locations=AW
{ geoitem.label }. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/profile/ABW
Bureau of Economic Analysis. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.bea.gov/
: City of New York, N. O. D. (n.d.). NYC open data. Retrieved from https://opendata.cityofnewyork.us/
Gruber, C., & Fiertz, N. (2025, November 3). CORVI: Measuring Multidimensional Climate Risks in Aruba. Stimson Center. https://www.stimson.org/2025/corvi-measuring-multidimensional-climate-risks-in-aruba/#elementor-toc__heading-anchor- 5