I am grateful for this opportunity to participate in this panel on issues related to the measurement of Cuba’s balance of payments position. My colleagues on the panel will elaborate on various problems that arise in interpreting Cuba’s official balance of payments (BOP) statistics. My job today is to provide a conceptual framework for their […]

The socialist leadership seeks to remedy the tattered fabric of Havana’s built environment by drawing on a comparative advantage: tourism. Since 1959, tourism had never been a leading economic sector. Fidel Castro had often vowed that Cuba would not become an island of bourgeoisie-catering bartenders and chambermaids as did other Caribbean nations (Eckstein 1977). Accordingly, […]

Notes1 The main problem faced by government is allocating scarce resources across competing activities and sectors. The choice between alternative investments, such as education versus physical infrastructure, depends on society’s objectives, which are represented by governmental decisions, and on the comparison of costs and future benefits of an investment. Since economists treat education as an […]

Cuba’s economic crisis began as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union and an inefficient management of the economy. This crisis brought uncertainty to the survivability of the Revolution. Soviet subsidies to the Cuban economy could no longer be counted on by the Castro regime. A new focus on economic methods and techniques […]