ASCE

The members of ASCE are deeply saddened by the news of the passing after a long illness of Oscar Espinosa Chepe in Madrid on September 23.  Chepe was a lonstanding member of ASCE whose sharp analysis and insights of Cuba’s economy and social conditions enlightened  discussions at annual meetings of the Association and stimulated thinking […]

Cuba has a long history of State support to enterprises. As indicated in Table1, total state subsidies and transfers to enterprises exploded in the early 1990s, following the elimination of Soviet economic assistance, reaching a peak of almost one third of GDP in 1992. From then on, state support then declined steadily to a trough […]

Cuba under Raul Castro is undertaking economic reforms, allowing some private small business, shifting labor from the state to the private sector, freeing selected retail prices, improving management of state enterprises and allowing purchase and sale of residential housing and cars among private parties.  In this note I gauge Cuba’s progress in economic reforms using […]

Three well-known economists of the Cuban diaspora with different backgrounds and perspectives (Carmelo Mesa-Lago, university professor; Ernesto Hernández-Catá, former IMF official; and Luis Luis, private financier)[i] agree that Cuba has received considerable Venezuelan assistance, as high as 20% of Cuban GDP.  As Luis indicates this support is fundamental to Cuba that faces severe external liquidity and solvency […]

In October 2010 Cuba and Venezuela signed the Integral Cooperation Agreement (Convenio Integral de Cooperación) under which Venezuela would provide a variety of subsidies and transfers to Cuba, including a large subsidy on oil imports. Cuba also would send medical personnel, teachers, and military and security advisers to Venezuela and (on much smaller scale) to […]