Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T07:32:48.269Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The U.S. Sugar Program and the Cuban Revolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2004

ALAN DYE  and
RICHARD SICOTTE
ALAN DYE
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Barnard College, Columbia University, 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10027. E-mail: ad245@columbia.edu
RICHARD SICOTTE
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Vermont, Rm. 239 Old Mill, 94 University Place, Burlington, VT 05405-0114. E-mail: richard.sicotte@uvm.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article argues that one contributing factor to the Cuban Revolution of 1959 was the 1956 revision of U.S. sugar quotas. Its significance has been overlooked because its real economic impact was programmed to occur after 1959. Combining a statistical simulation and an event study of sugar companies' rates of return on equity, we show that the revision had adverse long-run consequences for sugar exports, and that forward-looking investors anticipated them and incorporated them into their valuation of sugar-company stocks after 1953. Further evidence shows that the Batista regime and prominent insurgents understood the vital nature of Cuba's sugar import quota.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 64 , Issue 3 , September 2004 , pp. 673 - 704
Copyright
© 2004 The Economic History Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Archives Consulted

ANC. Archivo Nacional de Cuba, Fondo, I.C.E.A. (Instituto Cubano de Estabilización del Azúcar).
BB. Braga Brothers Collection, University of Florida at Gainesville. R.G. III.
USNA. National Archives of the United States, R.G. 16, Papers of the Secretary of Agriculture, General Correspondence; R.G. 59, Dept. of State Central Files.

Books and Articles

Batista y Zaldívar Fulgencio. 1962 Cuba Betrayed. New York: Vantage Press,
Benjamin Jules. 1990 The United States and the Origins of the Cuban Revolution. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
Ballinger Roy A. 1971 A History of Sugar Marketing. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Agricultural Economic Report 197, February
Binder John. “Measuring the Effects of Regulation with Stock Price Data.” Rand Journal of Economics 16, no. 2 (summer 1985): 167– 83.
Cepero Bonilla Raúl. 1963 Obras históricas. Havana: Instituto de Historia,
Cuba República de, 1958 Banco Nacional, Memoria,Google Scholar
Cuba Económica y Financiera, Anuario azucarero 1958. Havana: Cuba Económica y Financiera.
Domínguez Jorge. 1978 Cuba: Order and Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of the Harvard University Press,
Draper Theodore. 1962 Castro's Revolution: Myths and Realities. New York: Praeger,
Dye Alan. 1998 Cuban Sugar in the Age of Mass Production: Technology and the Economics of the Sugar Central, 1899–1929. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press,
Dye Alan, and Richard Sicotte, “Legislative Shocks to the U.S.-Cuban Sugar Trade: The Seismic Information in Stock Prices.” Barnard College Economics Department Working Paper No. 04-06.
Farber Samuel. 1976 Revolution and Reaction in Cuba, 1933–1960: A Political Sociology from Machado to Castro. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press,
García-Pérez Gladys Marel. 1998 Insurrection and Revolution: Armed Struggle in Cuba, 1952–1959. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner,
Goldstein Judith. 1993 Ideas, Interests and American Trade Policy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press,
Haber Stephen, Armando Razo, and Noel Maurer. 2003 The Politics of Property Rights: Political Instability, Credible Commitments, and Economic Growth in Mexico, 1876-1929. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
Ibarra Jorge. 1998 Prologue to Revolution: Cuba, 1898–1958. Boulder, CO: Lynne-Rienner,
Jensen Michael, ed. 1972 Studies in the Theory of Capital Markets. New York: Praeger,
Krueger Anne O. 1993 Economic Policies at Cross Purposes: The United States and Developing Countries. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution,
Libecap Gary. 1989 “Distributional Issues in Contracting for Property Rights. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 145, no. 1 (March): 6– 24.Google Scholar
Martínez Saenz Joaquín. 1959 Por la independencia económica de Cuba. Havana: Editorial Cenit,
Mesa-Lago Carmelo. 1978 Cuba in the 1970s: Pragmatism and Institutionalization. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press,
Moreno Fraginals Manuel. 1978 El Ingenio: El complejo económico social del azúcar. 3 vols. Havana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales,
Mullin George, Joseph Mullin, and Wallace Mullin. 1995 “The Competitive Effects of Mergers: Stock Market Evidence from the U.S. Steel Dissolution Suit.” Rand Journal of Economics 26, no. 2 (summer): 314– 30.Google Scholar
O'Connor James. 1970 The Origins of Socialism in Cuba. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press,
Pérez Louis. 1976 Army Politics in Cuba, 1898–1958. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press,
Pérez-Cisneros Enrique. 1957 Cuba y el Mercado azucarero mundial. Havana: Ucar García,
Pérez-López Jorge. 1991 The Economics of Cuban Sugar. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press,
Pérez-Stable Marifeli, 1993 The Cuban Revolution: Origins, Course, and Legacy. New York: Oxford University Press,
Rodríguez José Luís. 1987 “Agricultural Policy and Development in Cuba.” In Cuba's Socialist Economy Toward the 1990s, edited by Andrew Zimbalist, 25– 41. Boulder, CO: Lynne Reinner,
Rose Nancy. 1985 “The Incidence of Regulatory Rents in the Motor Carrier Industry.” Rand Journal of Economics 16, no. 3 (autumn): 299– 318.Google Scholar
Salinger Michael. 1992 “Value Event Studies.” Review of Economics and Statistics 74, no. 4 (November): 671– 77.Google Scholar
Schmitz Andrew, and Douglas Christian. 1993 “The Economics and Politics of U.S. Sugar Policy.” In The Economics and Politics of World Sugar Policies, edited by Stephen Marks and Keith Maskus, 49– 78. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,
Schwert William. 1981 “Using Financial Data to Measure Effects of Regulation.” Journal of Law and Economics 24, no. 1 (April): 121– 58.Google Scholar
1948–1959 Standard and Poor, Industry Surveys,
Suárez Andrés. 1967 Cuba: Castroism and Communism, 1959–1966. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,
Swerling Boris C. 1954 “The International Sugar Agreement of 1953,” American Economic Review 44, no. 5 (December): 837– 53.Google Scholar
Thomas Hugh. 1971 Cuba; the Pursuit of Freedom. New York: Harper and Row,
Thompson Aileen. “Trade Liberalization, Comparative Advantage, and Scale Economies: Stock Market Evidence from Canada.” Journal of International Economics 37 (1994): 1– 27.
1962 U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Agriculture. History and Operations of the U.S. Sugar Program. Washington, DC: GPO,
1956 U.S. Department of Commerce. Bureau of Foreign Commerce. Investment in Cuba: Basic Information for United States Businessmen. Washington, DC: GPO,
1983, 1987 U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States. Vols. 4, 6; American Republics. Washington, DC: GPO,
1996 Willard Kristen L., Timothy W. Guinnane, and Harvey S Rosen. “Turning Points in the Civil War: Views from the Greenback Market.” American Economic Review 86, no. 4 (September): 1001– 18.Google Scholar
Willett and Gray. Weekly Statistical Sugar Trade Journal.
Wolf Harold A. 1958 “The United States Sugar Policy and Its Impact Upon Cuba: A Reappraisal.” Ph.D. diss. University of Michigan,
Zanetti Lecuona Oscar. 1989 Los cautivos de la reciprocidad: la burguesía cubana y la dependencia comercial. Havana: Ediciones ENPES,
Zeitlin Maurice, and Robert Sheer. 1963 Cuba: Tragedy in Our Hemisphere. New York: Grove Press,