Eastern Europe: Different Paths, Different Results

The challenge of economic transition in Eastern Europe was a daunting task. The shift required sweeping political and economic reform with limited knowledge about the policies necessary to successfully complete such a transition. Yet the experience of these countries over the past decade, which encompassed vast differences in policy choices and the sequencing and timing of reforms, provides a wealth of information that can play an important role in shaping the economic future of Cuba and other remaining socialist countries. Cuba today occupies a position similar to many of the former Soviet satellite economies before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and this essay argues that many of Eastern Europe’s lessons will prove highly salient to the Cuban experience.