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THE ABSOLUTION OF HISTORY: CUBAN LIVING STANDARDS AFTER 60 YEARS OF REVOLUTIONARY RULE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 November 2020

John Devereux
John Devereux*
Affiliation:
City University of New Yorka
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Abstract

Six decades ago, Cuba initiated a momentous social and economic experiment. This paper documents the effects of the experiment on Cuban living standards. Before the revolution, Cuban income per capita was on a par with Ireland or Finland. Indeed, Cuba was one of the richest of the Spanish-speaking societies. Growth is glacially slow after the revolution as GDP per capita increased by 40 per cent between 1957 and 2017 equal to an annual growth rate of 0.6 per cent—among the lowest anywhere. To be sure, other dimensions of well-being such as education and health improved, yet broader welfare measures do not change the conclusion that the revolution impoverished Cuba relative to any plausible counter factual.

Resumen

RESUMEN

Hace seis décadas Cuba inició un monumental experimento social y económico. Este estudio documenta los efectos de ese experimento sobre los estándares de vida cubanos. Antes de la revolución, el ingreso per cápita cubano estaba al nivel de Irlanda y Finlandia. De hecho, Cuba era una de las sociedades de habla hispana más ricas. Después de la revolución el crecimiento es glacialmente lento con solo cuarenta por ciento de crecimiento en PIB per cápita, igual a una tasa de crecimiento del 0.6 por ciento, entre los más bajos de todo el mundo. Sin duda, otras dimensiones más amplias del bienestar, como educación y salud, mejoraron, sin embargo esto no cambia la conclusión de que la revolución empobreció a Cuba en relación a cualquier otro contrafactual.

Keywords

growth and developmentCubacapabilitiesN10O40O50Crecimiento y desarrolloCubacapacidades

Information

Type
Articles/Artículos
Information
Revista de Historia Economica - Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , March 2021 , pp. 5 - 36
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Instituto Figuerola, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

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Footnotes

a

Department of Economics, CUNY. john.devereux@qc.cuny.edu.

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