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The Road Not Taken: Pre-Revolutionary Cuban Living Standards in Comparative Perspective

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Listed author(s):
  • WARD, MARIANNE
  • DEVEREUX, JOHN
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    Abstract

    We examine Cuban GDP over time and across space. We find that Cuba was once a prosperous middle-income economy. On the eve of the revolution, incomes were 50 to 60 percent of European levels. They were among the highest in Latin America at about 30 percent of the United States. In relative terms, Cuba was richer earlier on. Income per capita during the 1920s was in striking distance of Western Europe and the Southern United States. After the revolution, Cuba slipped down the world income distribution. Current levels of income per capita appear below their pre-revolutionary peaks.

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    File URL: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0022050711002452
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    Article provided by Cambridge University Press in its journal The Journal of Economic History.

    Volume (Year): 72 (2012)
    Issue (Month): 01 (March)
    Pages: 104-132

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    Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:72:y:2012:i:01:p:104-132_00
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    Cambridge University Press, UPH, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 8BS UK

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    1. Kohli, Ulrich, 2004. "Real GDP, real domestic income, and terms-of-trade changes," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 83-106, January.
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    5. Reinhart, Karmen & Rogoff, Kenneth, 2009. ""This time is different": panorama of eight centuries of financial crises," Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 1, pages 77-114, March.
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    7. M. d. MAR RUBIO & CÉSAR YÁÑEZ & MAURICIO FOLCHI & ALBERT CARRERAS, 2010. "Energy as an indicator of modernization in Latin America, 1890-1925," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 63(3), pages 769-804, 08.
    8. Kyoji Fukao & Debin Ma & Tangjun Yuan, 2007. "Real Gdp In Pre-War East Asia: A 1934-36 Benchmark Purchasing Power Parity Comparison With The U.S," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 53(3), pages 503-537, 09.
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    Cited by:

    1. Benjamin Bridgman & Michael Maio & James A. Schmitz, 2012. "What ever happened to the Puerto Rican sugar manufacturing industry?," Staff Report 477, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

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