LASA Book Presentation: The Cuban Economy in a New Era: An Agenda for Change Toward Durable Development

Date: 

Thursday, May 24, 2018, 6:00pm to 7:30pm

Location: 

AC Hotel Barcelona Forum, Sala Barcelona, Passeig del Taulat, 278, Barcelona, Spain

Introductory remarks by Alejandro de la Fuente, Chair of the Cuba Studies Program, Robert Woods Bliss Professor of Latin American History and Economics and Director of the Afro-Latin American Research Institute at Harvard University.

Cuba’s economy has grown hardly at all during Raúl Castro’s presidency (2006-2016), hit by the economic collapse of its Venezuelan partner and burdened by a legacy of decayed infrastructure, a bankrupt sugar industry, and stagnant agriculture. This book diagnoses the ills that afflict Cuba’s economy and examines possible economic policy changes in seven areas: macroeconomic policy, central planning, role of small and medium private enterprises, nonagricultural cooperatives, financing options for the new private sector, state enterprise management, and relations with international financial institutions. Cuban economists are the authors of these seven chapters, whose combined import is further considered in introductory and concluding chapters. The book stems from over a decade of scholarly collaboration with Harvard scholars, anchored in a series of workshops held over the years in Cambridge and Havana.

Presenters

  • Lorena Barbería, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of São Paulo

  • Ileana Díaz Fernández, Professor, Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy, University of Havana

  • Marlén Sánchez Gutiérrez, Professor, Center for Research, University of Havana

  • José Antonio Alonso Rodríguez, Professor, Complutense University of Madrid

*This event is open to the public. No registration required.

See also: Cuba Studies