Event Summary
Barbara Kotschwar and Gary Clyde Hufbauer of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and Augusto de la Torre, chief economist for Latin America and the Caribbean at the World Bank, provided their insights on key issues facing the Cuban economy as US-Cuba economic relations evolve. Kotschwar and Hufbauer are coauthors of the Peterson Institute's prescient book, Economic Normalization with Cuba: A Roadmap for US Policymakers, published just eight months prior to the Obama administration's announcement to restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba.
Barbara Kotschwar has been with the Institute since 2007. She has been an adjunct professor of Latin American studies and economics at Georgetown University since 1998. Prior to joining the Institute, she was chief of the Foreign Trade Information System at the Organization of American States. She has advised Latin American and Caribbean governments on trade related issues and has worked with multilateral and regional development banks on a variety of trade and development projects.
Before becoming the Reginald Jones Senior Fellow at the Institute in 1992, Gary Clyde Hufbauer served as the Maurice Greenberg Chair and Director of Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Marcus Wallenberg Professor of International Finance and Diplomacy at Georgetown University, deputy director of the International Law Institute at Georgetown University, deputy assistant secretary for international trade and investment policy of the US Treasury, and director of the international tax staff at the Treasury.
Since joining the World Bank in 1997, Augusto de la Torre has also held positions as senior advisor in the financial systems department and senior financial sector for Latin America and the Caribbean. He was president of the Central Bank of Ecuador from 1993 to 1997. From 1986 to 1992, he was an economist for the International Monetary Fund.
Event Materials
Presentations: Barbara Kotschwar [pdf] | Gary Clyde Hufbauer [pdf] | Augusto de la Torre [pdf]
Paper: Exchange Rate Unification: The Cuban Case [pdf]
Augusto de la Torre and Alain Ize
December 2014
Book: Economic Normalization with Cuba: A Roadmap for US Policymakers
Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Barbara Kotschwar
Assisted by Cathleen Cimino and Julia Muir
April 2014