For many decades, premium Cuban cigars have served as the world standard against which other cigars are judged. The story is told that, immediately before President John F. Kennedy approved the embargo against Cuba in 1962, he sent an assistant to Washington tobacco shops to buy up the available supply of the hand-made Cuban cigars […]
Cuban Tourism, Economic Growth, and the Welfare of the Cuban Worker
The recent boom in Cuban tourism is a classic example of maximization under constraints. Hampered by the tightened U.S. embargo and by the disappearance of substantial economic aid from the former Communist Bloc countries, the Cuban government has exploited one of the few growth sectors open to it. Joint ventures with companies from foreign countries […]
Alternative Policies to Deal With Labor Surpluses During the Cuba Transition
Note[ref]This is a revised version of the longer paper presented at the 1996 ASCE Annual Meetings. Some portions of this study appeared in an earlier paper, “Planning for a Free Market Labor Force in Post-Transition Cuba,” presented at the Allied Social Science Association meetings in San Francisco, California, January 4-7, 1996.[/ref] It is axiomatic that […]
Small Business Development in Post-Transition Cuba
Small businesses form the productive foundation of most mixed economies around the world. They provide an effective outlet for entrepreneurial initiative and ability, they fill market niches that are not profitable for larger firms, and they create jobs in a wide variety of occupations. The encouragement of small business growth has been a major concern […]
Dual Monetary Systems in the Western Hemisphere and the Cuban Transition
When the Cuban economy begins its ultimate transition from a centralized system to a market-oriented system, the experience will be both prolonged and disruptive of normal economic activity. Policymakers must confront the need for extensive structural changes, while having to deal with equally significant political and economic stresses. The institutional arrangements chosen by the transitional […]