Cuban Economy in a New Era

Jorge I. Domínguez is Antonio Medero Professor of Mexican and Latin American Politics and Economics at Harvard University. Omar Everleny Pérez Villanueva is Professor in the Department of Economics and a Researcher at the Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy at the University of Havana. Lorena Barberia is Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of São Paulo.

With the passing of Fidel Castro and the reestablishment of U.S.–Cuban relations, Cuba is poised for major change—but towards what? In The Cuban Economy in a New Era, we get a rare glimpse from the inside. Ten leading scholars from the island discuss critical factors in that transformation, including the major economic reforms to date, the key players (from new cooperatives to the emerging private sector), and the role of the formal financial sector and the challenges of innovation and planning. In the process, we get an invaluable first-hand view of how the Cuban economy really functions. To cap it all, as bookends, two long-time Cuban analysts, Harvard’s acclaimed Jorge Domínguez and Lorena Barberia of the Universidade de São Paulo, put this in perspective for us. This book is a key contribution, at precisely the right time.