the Cuban Economy (Pitt Latin American Series) - Hardcover

Ritter, Archibald R.M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0822942186 ISBN 13: 9780822942184

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004

Synopsis

Cuba faced an economic meltdown of catastrophic proportions in the early 1990s when covert subsidies from the former Soviet Union disappeared. Policies instituted by the island republic's government to handle the worst problems have had inconsistent results.
Opening the economy to foreign enterprise has resulted in positive growth in tourism and nickel and cigar exports. However, remnants of the older economy, including the sugar and biotechnological industries, have only experienced a decrease in capital and importance. Basic educational and health services have been maintained surprisingly well, but the standard of living is still far below the highs of the 1980s. With contributions from many leading Cuba scholars, The Cuban Economy offers not only an analysis of the economy since 1990, but also a look towards future prospects.

About this title

About the Author

Archibald R. M. Ritter is a professor of economics and international affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. His works on Cuba include The Economic Development of Revolutionary Cuba: Strategy and Performance.

From the Back Cover

"Ritter and his contributors explore the key questions facing Cuba's economy at century's opening. Lucidly written, accessible to noneconomists, and well conceived, this book addresses both the large questions of macroeconomic policy design and performance as well as key specialized topics. . . . It is broadly informative about one of the hemisphere's most opaque economies."-Jorge Domínguez, Harvard University

"Ritter's overview provides a masterful account of recent performance and problems of the Cuban economy. The other essays complement it with well-informed discussions of a wide variety of important issues, for example, the peso versus the dollar as the medium of exchange, the taxation of microenterprises, the prospects of the sugar industry, and foreign investment in the 1990s."-Roger Betancourt, University of Maryland

"The subject matter covered is ground breaking and not readily available elsewhere. Despite the significant amount of scholarship on Cuba generally and on the Cuban economy in particular, this book provides insightful analysis of particular issues that until now have only been superficially examined."-Sergio Díaz-Briquets, coauthor of Conquering Nature: The Environmental Legacy of Socialism in Cuba

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0822942186
• ISBN 13: 9780822942184
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 264