Cuban Economic Reforms - How Far will they Go?

There is plenty of coverage and discussion at the moment of the extent to which Cuba is making a decisive and significant move away from a soviet-style economic model. In a bid to cut government debt, subsidies for many staple foods have been cut and hundreds of thousands of under-employed workers in government-run industries are facing unemployment in the next couple of years. But how far is Cuba prepared to go to make structural changes to their economic system? Here are some background articles:

Is Cuba set for major changes in 2011? (BBC news, January 2011)
Cuba issues plans to expand its private sector (BBC news, September 2010)
Cuba to withdraw cheap cigarettes for elderly (BBC news, September 2010)
Cubans stock up as reforms take toll on ration (Reuters, December 2010)
Cuba bows to pressure to reform its economy (Financial Times, December 2010)

Unit 2 Macro: Cyclical and Structural Economic Issues Facing the UK [23 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Evaluation on Supply-Side Policies [21 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Positive and Negative Multiplier Effects [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Measuring Unemployment in the UK [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The Output Gap [20 May 2012]
Revision notes on unemployment [20 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Economics of a Minimum Wage [12 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision Notes on Supply-side Policies [10 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Unemployment Glossary [5 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Economic Cycle Glossary [5 May 2012]
Macro Revision - Key Statistics on the UK Economy [4 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Using the Cost-Benefit Principle [30 Apr 2012]
Macro Revision: Putting Things in Context [29 Apr 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Spanish unemployed head to Argentina [29 Apr 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: The Euro Zone Crisis (Revision) [22 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Better news on jobs in the UK? [19 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Skills Shortages Hold Back Recovery [12 Apr 2012]
Superb article on unemployment [8 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: How the Economic Cycle affects Businesses [6 Apr 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Unemployment Scarring Effects [2 Apr 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Pain in Spain as Fiscal Austerity Bites [1 Apr 2012]
Blanchflower calls for more action to address youth jobless crisis [28 Mar 2012]
Life in the Slow Lane - UK Growth in 2011 Lags the Euro Area [28 Mar 2012]
Beyond the Bike - Monetary Policy in Africa [28 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Seasonal and Structural Unemployment [15 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Policies to Drive Economic Recovery [9 Mar 2012]
Unit 1 Micro - Labour Migration and the Economy [5 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: A Man Regains his Self Respect [25 Feb 2012]
Unit 1 Economics: Panorama - Poor America [17 Feb 2012]
Economics Explained, by Evan [12 Feb 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Growth and Development - Some Indicators [30 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Money, Debt and the New World Order [22 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Living below the Breadline [19 Jan 2012]
Hopes and Fears 2012 [10 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: A Jobs Boost for the US Economy [8 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision Quiz on Economics of Unemployment [5 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Video Resources on Unemployment [3 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The UK Housing Market in 2011 [26 Dec 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Long Term Unemployment - A Human Story [15 Dec 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Will a Youth Jobs Subsidy Work? [30 Nov 2011]
Where is the UK Economy? National Output [22 Nov 2011]
UK unemployment in November 2011 - a video overview [22 Nov 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: A Prezi on Unemployment Policies [16 Nov 2011]
AS Macro: The State of British Business [13 Nov 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: America’s hour-glass economy [9 Nov 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Video Clips on Unemployment [6 Nov 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Unemployment Chart Resource Download [29 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: A Widening Regional Divide in Life Expectancy [19 Oct 2011]
UK Unemployment in October 2011 [12 Oct 2011]
Why Is Macroeconomics Such A Mess? [11 Oct 2011]
NMW: Classical real-wage unemployment [3 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Greek Economy at Default’s Door [25 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: IMF Flags up Risks of Double Dip [20 Sep 2011]
Study Note - Economic Systems [13 Sep 2011]
Public vs Private Sector - the world’s largest employers. [12 Sep 2011]
“We need to make more stuff, using the same number of people…” [16 Jul 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Dangers of High Inflation [11 Jul 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Reducing Unemployment after a Recession [11 Jul 2011]
Structural unemployment in the UK - insights for 2011 [13 Jun 2011]
A2 Macro: Consumer Spending [30 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Supply-Side Policies [25 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Deflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Trend Growth [23 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Recession [23 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Spare Capacity [23 May 2011]
AQA A2 Economics - European Context [23 May 2011]
Interest Rates Held at 0.5% once again [5 May 2011]
Australia Booming Ahead [21 Apr 2011]
OCR F585 June 2011: A Brain Drain from Spain? [13 Apr 2011]
Focus on Ireland’s Economy [12 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Frictional Unemployment [11 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Seasonal Unemployment [10 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Double-Dip Recession [8 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Jobless Recovery [8 Apr 2011]
ECB breaks rank and raises interest rates [7 Apr 2011]
EU Economics - Portugal Reaches for Bail Out [6 Apr 2011]
Focus on Poland [5 Apr 2011]
Tutor2u Visits Madrid! [4 Apr 2011]
Timetric: Unemployment in the US Economy [1 Apr 2011]
OCR F585 June 2011: Data Charts (2) [30 Mar 2011]
Structural unemployment - Top 10 Dying Industries [28 Mar 2011]
Keeping Track of UK Macro Objectives [18 Mar 2011]
Unemployment Rises - Good News! [17 Mar 2011]
Focus on Spain [16 Mar 2011]
Timetric: Unemployment Rates for Selected Countries [12 Mar 2011]
Timetric: UK Consumption as a Share of GDP [12 Mar 2011]
Dambisa Moyo - How the West was Lost [11 Mar 2011]
Ireland - Mass Unemployment and Shrinking GDP [10 Mar 2011]
Timetric: Regional Unemployment in the UK [4 Mar 2011]
Timetric: Long term Unemployment in the UK [2 Mar 2011]
The Consumer Pants Index (CPI) [1 Mar 2011]
EU Economics: Germany leads Euro Zone revival [25 Feb 2011]
Structural Unemployment - The Last Cast [23 Feb 2011]
Unemployment in Germany and Spain [14 Feb 2011]
Youth Unemployment - Not as high as we are told? [13 Feb 2011]
Challenges facing the London Economy [12 Feb 2011]
Mo Tanweer on Global Currency Wars [10 Feb 2011]
Unemployment in the UK Economy - Chart Resource Download [9 Feb 2011]
David Smith on Shifting Sands in the Global Economy [8 Feb 2011]
Choppy Times - An Economic Cycle Update and Resource Download [25 Jan 2011]

ECONOMICS TEACHER RESOURCE NEWSLETTER

Join over 6,000 other Economics Teachers in the UK and around the world who receive the tutor2u regular Economics Resource Email Newsletter. Get special offers, first news of latest resources, teaching ideas, conferences and workshops + loads of great ideas for teaching economics from our blog authors.