Cuban Economists on the Cuban Economy

Most scholarship on the Cuban economy looks at the island nation from the outside in. Cuban Economists on the Cuban Economy is the first collection to bring together some of the islands leading economists to discuss the good and the bad about their own economy. These thirteen voices--seldom published together in English--offer clear and straightforward analyses of how Cuban society provides for its needs, distributes surplus, and assesses its shortcomings. Focusing on changes in policy during the Special Period, the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, this volume tracks various shifts, both major and minor, in the islands planned economy as leaders adapted to changing global relations while developing independent sources of income. These essays offer invaluable and sober assessments of Cubas entrance into the international economy through such sectors as tourism, knowledge-based goods and services, and agriculture. Cuban Economists on the Cuban Economy was written, in part, to reveal the rigorous research conducted within the country and to clarify the different factors that Cubans emphasise in examining their place on the world economic stage. It also provides unique insights into the islands fight against poverty, its aging population, and its trade unions. This book will be an invaluable resource for years to come.