Carmelo Mesa-Lago is distinguished service professor emeritus of economics and Latin American studies at the University of Pittsburgh. He has published about ninety books in seven languages across thirty-nine countries and received many awards, including the International Labour Organization Decent Work Research Prize (shared with Nelson Mandela) for his work on social protection in the world.

The book’s strength is its compendium of data and its thorough examination of many aspects of welfare and their successes and failures in China, Vietnam and Cuba, as well as its demonstration of Cuba’s shortfalls; it amounts to a sourcebook.