Entrepreneurial Cuba: the changing policy landscape

Annual Proceedings, 2011

2016

2004

Sociologica

This manuscript focuses on factors-in particular, political credential and mobilization of personal contacts-associated to becoming a cuentapropista, namely a self-employed worker in the emerging private sector. Data were collected shortly before the launch of the recent reforms plan aiming at revitalizing the market-oriented reforms of the 1990s. The results suggest that being a member of the PCC is negatively associated to entering in the private sector. Older individuals and recipients of remittances have instead a higher probability to become a self-employed worker. Moreover, the results provide some support to previous findings that turning to personal ties-especially if strong-to successfully complete a job search, is a common practice in Cuba.

Cuba is a small island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Its demography is one of the smallest of the world reaching almost twelve million inhabitants, though this number is almost doubled by the number of tourists that visit the island each year. Its political appearance has been always considered controversial due to the three governmental overthrows occurred in the 20 th century. Though all these facts Cuba has been considered one of the most politically interesting countries of the past years and has frequently played the role of the " decision maker " during the most critical phases of the past years regarding international affairs and diplomacy. This fact is due essentially by the fact that it covers a very important strategic geographical position, it is very

2017

Economic Reforms In Cuba: What's Next? is part of the 2017 Annual Proceedings of The Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy.

1996

The Effect of Socialism on the Entrepreneurial Abilities of Cuban-Americans is part of the 1996 Annual Proceedings of The Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy.

Economía Sociedad y Territorio, 2016

We examine how small entrepreneurs perceive their changing internal and external environments in Cuba, a country with a highly regulated yet emerging entrepreneurial class. We build on the concept of everyday exchange or mundane entrepreneurship, originally developed as a lens to understand non-state actions in the former USSR, and apply it to contemporary Cuba in the post-Soviet era. Our socially situated case of entrepreneurship in Cuba identifies how entrepreneurial behavior is sustained outside the contexts of the market. The result is a realignment in which contemporary entrepreneurship on the island shares important similarities with the Soviet blat system, while it also exhibits attributes that are unique to the Cuban case.