There is an impressive list of enthusiastic recommendations printed on the first few pages of this book, from leading scholars of the Cuban economy from within Cuba, the United States, Europe and Japan. They attest to Mesa-Lago's thorough scholarship, building on decades of close observation and analysis of his subject. The result, they affirm, is an essential reference work not only for those studying the Cuban experience, but also for those whose burden it is to develop economic and social policy on the island. Indeed, each of the six chapters is packed with data, fully referenced and clearly organised, and there is no other single source that has amassed this amount of information on the Cuban economy since 2006, when Raúl Castro took over following the resignation of his brother, Fidel, due to ill health. Unfortunately there is no index, but navigation of the material is helped by the list of tables and charts.

The first chapter provides a 30-page overview of the evolution of the Cuban economy and social policy since the 1959 revolution – a very useful primer for those new to the subject, and a good summary of the arguments Mesa-Lago has developed in earlier works. The next three chapters survey conditions in 2006–12 (the first six years after Raúl's takeover). They tackle, in turn, the domestic economy, international economic relations, and social welfare. The fifth chapter analyses the meaning of the transfer of power to Raúl, and the nature of the lineamientos (guidelines) for economic policy approved by the Sixth Congress of the Partido Comunista de Cuba in April 2011. The implementation of the lineamientos remained at an early stage at the time of going to press, but nonetheless, in his final chapter, Mesa-Lago bravely attempts to predict the effects of the reforms before making his own suggestions for future policy.

Mesa-Lago's reputation as the leading authority on this subject is confirmed by this detailed and informative study. However, his exceptional diligence and seniority in the field have led to the creation of an established consensus that is perhaps too rarely examined. One example is his characterisation of the nature of economic policy-making since the revolution, with its eight swings between ‘idealist’ and ‘pragmatic’ cycles. This has been a useful way to periodise five decades of economic management and debates, but it has also possibly underplayed continuities and contradictory currents, and has risked overstating the degree of centralisation of economic decision-making. For example, during what Mesa-Lago describes as the ‘idealist’ phase of the rectificación de errores y tendencias negativas of 1986–90, the Cuban government signed the first joint venture with a private foreign investor, took the first steps towards rebuilding the tourist sector and introduced Western management methods in state enterprises, while during the ‘pragmatic’ early 1990s of the ‘Special Period’, state control of the distribution of basic goods was tightened. And in the period that preceded the years examined in the book, the ‘idealistic’ phases from 1997 to 2006, very few of the reforms of 1991–6 were actually reversed, while the banking system was decentralised and a stream of pilot programmes and new training and research in marketing, financial management and auditing laid the institutional groundwork for subsequent decentralising measures. The description of policy since 2006 as the ‘third pragmatic cycle, which is the strongest of the revolution’ seems to deny the importance of the preceding experimentation and learning.

A further question arises from the description of policy as ‘idealist’, even while acknowledging the importance of external conditions. When the nation has appeared to be under the greatest threat, stronger nationalist rhetoric, the tightening of state control and aversion to the risks inherent in liberalising reforms might be considered a pragmatic government response. When there was a real fear of US hostility in 2001–4, external tensions, as much as any idealist notions, would account for the preference for limiting reform to low-profile pilot studies and incremental measures. And it would hardly have been pragmatic to reject the generous terms negotiated with Venezuela in 2004 that gave the economy such a strong boost in 2005–6, based on exchange between central government entities (nationalised Venezuelan oil traded for state-trained and state-employed Cuban professionals).

The effect of the characterisation of Cuban policy-making presented here has been to paint a picture that does not explain the full rationale for decisions and has therefore tended to portray policy as persistently irrational, performance as persistently negative and the solution as relatively simple: what is needed is more liberalisation. The final conclusion of this book seems to restate those certainties, insisting that ‘it is necessary to move forward structural reforms with greater firmness, speed, and depth’. However, possibly as a result of new opportunities for meaningful interchange of ideas with colleagues on the island (with Mesa-Lago's work published within Cuba for the first time in 2005, and his first article written jointly with a Cuban economist in 2010), as well as a change in the nature of the policy debate within Cuba (where nobody, least of all the current leadership, would now deny that many big mistakes have been made, and that many aspects of the economy function very poorly), this book grapples more closely than before with the range of specific challenges created by Cuba's unique circumstances. These include not only domestic weaknesses, such as the legacy of overmanned state enterprises, poor incentives, the dual currency and market restrictions and distortions, but also the huge economic limitations arising from US sanctions and hostility.

Mesa-Lago's closer engagement, together with an increasingly open debate within Cuba and greater acknowledgement of the complexity of the task of adjustment among foreign economists (as the experience of other former centrally planned economies has taught the hazards of systemic transformation, the importance of responding to specific conditions, and the benefits of ‘evolutionary’ adjustment that allows for institutional adjustment, experimentation and learning), has created new space for meaningful debate and research collaboration between researchers on the island and outside. Indeed, although Mesa-Lago remains a dedicated and sharp critic of Cuban economic management, many of his proposals are now in line with Cuban government policy. This book therefore not only provides invaluable documentation of the process of economic reform in Cuba, but also signals growing space for dialogue as Cuba searches for its path to prosperity.