Notes1 In 2004, ECLAC published a volume titled Política Social y Reformas Estructurales: Cuba a Principios del Siglo XXI that focuses on social policies during the period 1997–2002 (CEPAL 2004b). A collaborative effort among ECLAC’s Regional Office in Mexico, Cuba’s National Economic Research Institute (Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Económicas, INIE), and the United Nations Development […]

In developing countries much of the teeming mass does not consist of oppressed legal proletarians but of oppressed extralegal small entrepreneurs. —(De Soto 2000: 216) Instead of the Trojan Horse that will ultimately break down the fortress of “mercantilist” privilege, the informal sector represents part of the routine operation of capitalism as it is presently […]

Notes1 Everyone agrees that the Washington Consensus did not contain all the answers to the questions of 1989, let alone that it addresses all the new issues that have arisen since then. So of course we need to go beyond it. —John Williamson, 2004 …it is probably better to be cautious and correct than ambitious […]

Notes1 Cesación del embargo norteamericano y de toda medida coercitiva de una nación contra otras que no tengan justificación ética. La cesación del embargo crearía un ambiente más propicio para los cambios y dejaría sin argumentos la reticencia o la lentitud de llevarlos a cabo. —Dagoberto Valdés (2005, p. 379) The threat to men of […]

The Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 liberalized the export policy of the United States with regard to the shipment of food and medical commodities to Cuba. As with any changes in trade policy, an important question is the estimation of the resulting economic impact of governmental action. Such an economic impact […]