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The Cuban Economy

Paper Session

Friday, Jan. 5, 2018 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM

Loews Philadelphia, Parlor 2
Hosted By: Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy
  • Chair: Carlos Seiglie, Rutgers University

Cuba’s Normalization Policy in a Trump Administration: Political Economy Perspectives

Roger Betancourt
,
University of Maryland

Abstract

A useful starting point will be Obama’s normalization policy because there is evidence and perspective on its effects. By contrast the Trump normalization policy has been recently announced. Nonetheless its approach is reflected in characterizations of Obama’s consistent with the view that there is no particular objection to Obama’s normalization policy but to the failure in extracting concessions from the other side. We look at outcomes under the earlier policy as informative on potential outcomes of the current one. Obama’s Cuba normalization policy focused primarily on the embargo either explicitly or implicitly. The latter has three dimensions from an economic viewpoint: flows of persons, flows of goods and services and flows of capital across the two countries. We consider first each dimension separately. Then, since the embargo has important non-economic dimensions that involve political interests of policy makers, we discuss these political dimensions and their interactions with the economic ones in light of the main actual policies changed or implicitly adopted by the Trump administration by not changing them.

Organization and Performance of Cuba’s Worker Managed Cooperatives

Kislaya Prasad
,
University of Maryland

Abstract

A key component of the ongoing economic reforms in Cuba is the expansion of worker cooperatives. Most significantly, the 2011 guidelines permitted non-agricultural cooperatives to operate for the first time. Based on field research in Cuba, this paper examines the organization of both agricultural and non-agricultural cooperatives. The governance structure of the cooperatives is described, with emphasis on the objectives of the cooperative, the structure of decision-making and the extent of managerial control over the use of assets. Although the individual cooperatives I studied perform well, in the absence of the right kind of data it is difficult to generalize this to the organizational form itself. It is also difficult to assess which aspects of governance are critical to the success of cooperatives. To assess performance I rely on identifying the extent to which the organization of Cuba’s cooperatives approximate the conditions that economic theory and previous research on worker-managed firms identify as being conducive to efficiency. This serves to identify impediments to efficiency, and points to avenues for further reform.

Comparing the Quality of Education in Pre and Post Revolutionary Cuba Using United States Labor Market Outcomes

John Devereux
,
City University of New York
Luis Locay
,
University of Miami

Abstract

We use US Census data to estimate the return to Cuban education in the US labor market. We use the difference in pre and post Revolution returns to education as a measure of the change in education quality.
Discussant(s)
Bryan Roberts
,
Institute for Defense Analyses
John Devereux
,
City University of New York
JEL Classifications
  • P2 - Socialist Systems and Transitional Economies
  • O5 - Economywide Country Studies