MORRIS, EMILY
Co-founder and co-director @ Caribbean Research and Innovation Collaboration for Exchange and Transfer’ (CRICKET)
Bio
Dr Emily Morris is a development economist, based at the UCL Institute of the Americas. She has previously worked at the Economist Intelligence Unit, School of Oriental and African Studies, and the Inter-American Development Bank. She has published, presented and consulted widely on Cuban economic performance and policy. She is co-founder and co-director of the ‘Caribbean Research and Innovation Collaboration for Exchange and Transfer’ (CRICKET) community interest company, established in 2020 to promote UK-Caribbean research partnerships.
Geographical location :
Research Area and Interest :
Social Media
Panel
Development and Disaster policy
Presentation
Cuban Transformation 2022: A New Development Model in the Wake of Trump and COVID-19
After suffering four years of tightening US sanctions and two years of COVID-19, the Cuban economy began to show signs of recovery in the last quarter of 2021. But beneath the headline growth figures, profound transformations are happening. Economic reforms have opened space for new actors to conduct new kinds of activity, and a currency reform has overhauled relative incomes and prices, with huge implications for the system of economic management. Job security and stable wages and prices have been replaced by the prospect of bankruptcy for some state-owned enterprises, greater labour mobility, rising official unemployment and high rates of inflation. Cubans have been shaken by the disruption and uncertainty, but economists have argued that the reforms are overdue and the government insists that they are necessary to improve living standards. In 2022, we can examine emerging trends in prices, employment, incomes and output to begin to weigh the evidence so far and provide clues about prospects for the coming years.