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Cuba: Economics Red in Tooth and Claw

Cuba: Economics Red in Tooth and Claw. Humberto Barreto DePauw University hbarreto@depauw.edu. Arroz con Mango. Scale Model of Havana. Operation Peter Pan. Patria potestad. Maceo Che June 14, 1845 and 1928. Religion. La Virgen de Regla. Art: Wifredo Lam. The Jungle (1943).

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Cuba: Economics Red in Tooth and Claw

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  1. Cuba: Economics Red in Tooth and Claw Humberto Barreto DePauw University hbarreto@depauw.edu Arroz con Mango

  2. Scale Model of Havana

  3. Operation Peter Pan Patria potestad MaceoChe June 14, 1845 and 1928

  4. Religion

  5. La Virgen de Regla

  6. Art: Wifredo Lam The Jungle (1943) El TercerMundo(1965) http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=34666 MuseoNacional de BellasArtes, Havana

  7. Universidad de La Habana

  8. Alma Mater

  9. Mulata?

  10. Health Care 96% 92% 81% 79% 26.7% 9.6% 6.8% 4.4% Source: www.google.com/publicdata World Bank, World Development Indicators

  11. Health Care 96% 92% 81% 79% 26.7 9.6 6.8 4.4 Source: www.google.com/publicdata World Bank, World Development Indicators

  12. Why is US Infant Mortality so High? Table 116. Infant Mortality Rates by Race, States and Island Areas: 1980 to 2007 http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/births_deaths_marriages_divorces/deaths.html

  13. Why is US Infant Mortality so High? Table 116. Infant Mortality Rates by Race, States and Island Areas: 1980 to 2007 http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/births_deaths_marriages_divorces/deaths.html

  14. Education

  15. Cuban Education From Carnoy, Table 4.1B, p. 66; LaboratorioLatinoamericano de Evaluación de la Calidad de Educación, 1997-98

  16. Why such High Scores? From Carnoy, Table 4.1B, p. 66; LaboratorioLatinoamericano de Evaluación de la Calidad de Educación, 1997-98

  17. Why such High Scores? It’s Labor, not Capital “In the beginning of this study we asked why Cuban elementary schoolers score so much higher in math and language tests than children in other Latin American countries. The answer turns out to be fairly straightforward: Cuban children attend schools that are intensely focused on instruction and are staffed by well-trained, regularly supervised teachers in a social environment that is dedicated to high academic achievement for all social groups. Combining high-quality teaching with high academic expectations and a tightly controlled school management hierarchy with well-defined goals is what makes the Cuban system tick. It distinguishes Cuban education from other systems in Latin America. In essence, Cuban education gives most Cuban pupils a primary education that only upper-middle-class children receive in other Latin American countries.” (Carnoy, p. 141)

  18. Cuba’s Economic Performance MaddisonData.xls

  19. Why is Cuba’s Economy so Bad? Because Cuba’s economy is based on a Soviet-style government bureaucracy that does a poor job of allocating resources and generating economic growth.

  20. Economics: La Libreta

  21. Economics: Labor Markets • Taxi drivers • State jobs pay from 200 to 800 pesos per month • I paid 5 CUCs from the airport to my hotel • Who drives taxis? • My cousin’s career switch • HR Manager at a hospital smoked pork factory • Why did he switch?

  22. Economics: Entrepreneurship • Paladares • An oasis of free markets • “Se permuta” • How housing works • Tour Operator • “Ay, Humberto, esimposible.”

  23. Economics: Cephalization An evolutionary process whereby nervous tissue concentrates at one end of an organism, producing a head that controls the rest of the body

  24. Economics: Cephalization “When uncertainty is present and the task of deciding what to do and how to do it takes the ascendancy over that of execution, the internal organization of the productive groups is no longer a matter of indifference or a mechanical detail. Centralization of this deciding and controlling function is imperative, a process of "cephalization," such as has taken place in the evolution of organic life, is inevitable, and for the same reasons as in the case of biological evolution.” Frank Knight, Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit http://www.econlib.org/library/Knight/knRUP8.html#III.IX.8

  25. Economics: Cephalization The Cuban economy has no effective way of choosing managers and leaders of individual units of production. It does a poor job of replacing ineffective managers. It is exceptionally bad at transferring leadership positions from old to young. Freakonomics: The Church of Scionology

  26. Politics: Succession 19 April 2011 New York Times Front Page Article “Cuba Lays Foundation for a New Leader” HAVANA — Cuba on Tuesday made the most significant change to its leadership since the 1959 revolution, naming someone other than the Castro brothers for the first time to fill the second-highest position in the Communist Party and possibly setting the stage for their eventual successor.

  27. Conclusion

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