Mr. Luzárraga’s paper presents a sketch of the financial and developmental problems facing the postCastro Cuba and makes a number of proposals to address these problems. The paper touches upon many important issues including the importance of creating an efficient financial system in Cuba, the promotion of capital markets, the establishment of a viable social […]
Comments by Ricardo C. Martinez on “Financing the Economic Reconstruction of Cuba While Rebuilding the Financial Sector: Perspectives on Development Banking” by Manuel Lasaga
This paper looks into one of the thorniest, and most crucial, subjects in the study of economic develop- ment, namely the role of financial intermediation, or of how the financial system transforms a country’s savings into the flow of investment that the economy needs in order to grow and develop. Mr. Lasaga adds complexity to […]
Comments by Roger R. Betancourt on “Restitution vs. Indemnification: Their Effects on the Pace of Privatization” by Luis Locay and Cigdem Ural
The problem the authors choose to solve is the seeming paradox that economists recommend some form of indemnification and oppose restitution but practitioners in transition settings have usually chosen restitution rather than indemnification. In laying out the problem, the authors set up a bit of a straw man by arguing that there are only two […]
Comments by Luis Locay on: “A Five-Year Projection for a Restructured Cuba by Ernest H. Preeg” and “A First Approximation Model of the Balance of Payments, Output, Employment and Foreign Aid Requirements of a Democratic Cuba” by José F. Alonso and Armando M. Lago
Both of these papers make numerical projections for specific sectors in a transitional Cuba. Alonso and Lago also forecast various macroeconomic variables. I will discuss the projections for specific sectors first, since these are common to both papers. I conclude with a discussion of Alonso and Lago’s macroeconomic forecasts. Projections for Specific Sectors A methodological […]
Comments by Lorenzo Perez on Towards a Market Economy in Cuba? Social and Political Consideration
Dr. Perez-Stable’s paper argues that Cuban socialism is increasingly unviable because of the reduction of the Soviet Union subsidies, the continuation of the United States blockade, and the increasing demands for political changes by the middle class. She notes that this has led many observers to believe that the restoration of a market economy and […]