Notes1 The collapse of Eastern European and Soviet socialism in the early 1990s caused the most severe economic crisis in Cuba’s revolutionary history. The economic crisis of the 1990s forced the Cuban government to implement a series of policy measures to transform some aspects of the Cuban economy, while retaining (most of) the socialist character […]
Comments on “Cuban GDP Statistics under the Special Period: Discontinuities, Obfuscation, and Puzzles” by Pérez-López and Mesa-Lago
The paper by Pérez-López and Mesa-Lago provides a very eloquent account of the recent evolution of Cuban GDP statistics. It places a particular emphasis on Cuban GDP statistics since 2001 and explains the methodology used to estimate GDP as a result of a series of changes introduced in that year. The authors make several important […]
Survey of Cuban Remittance Forwarding Agencies in the United States: Preliminary Findings
Despite the implementation of remittance and travel restrictions (RTRs) by the Bush Administration on June 30, 2004, and the replacement of the U.S. dollar (USD) with the convertible peso (CUC) by the Cuban government in October of that year, family remittances continue to play a key role in the Cuban economy. During the 2001–2006 period, […]
Dominican Policies to Attract Remittances: Economic Impact and Lessons for Cuba
Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) received an estimated $45 billion in remittances in 2005 (González-Corzo & Larson, 2007). According to the Inter-American Development Bank (BID, 2007), by the end of 2006, remittances to the region were estimated at $62.3 billion and by 2010 they are expected to reach $100 billion. This would represent an […]
Cuban Monetary Reforms and their Relationship with Policies to Attract Remittances During the Special Period
In the 1980s and 1990s, Cuba implemented a series of reforms to attract remittances from abroad. These policies included efforts to attract foreign investment (1982, 1995), the expansion of international tourism (1990), the authorization of some (limited) forms of self-employment (1993), the semi-official “dollarization” of the Cuban economy (1993), the reorganization of the agricultural sector […]