CNE marks 50 years since Tobin Report on Puerto Rico
The Center for a New Economy (CNE) and Yale University’s Tobin Center for Economic Policy convened economists, policymakers and civic leaders in New Haven, Connecticut, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Tobin Report on Puerto Rico, a landmark study that helped shape the island’s modern economic debate.
Commissioned in 1975 by then-Gov. Rafael Hernández-Colón and led by Nobel laureate and Yale professor James Tobin, the report analyzed Puerto Rico’s fiscal and development challenges during a period of economic transition. Its recommendations on industrial incentives, fiscal discipline and data-driven planning influenced public policy for decades.
“The events of 1974 forced Puerto Rico to take a hard look at the economic strategy of the time. Today, fifty years later, we find ourselves at a similar inflection point,” said CNE President Rosana Torres-Pizarro.
“We need to revisit our past and carefully consider its lessons, not to follow every prescription blindly, but to understand what worked, what did not and how we can use those insights to seize this moment, that is, if we are truly going to transform Puerto Rico’s economy,” she said.
Speakers included Laura Arnold, co-founder and co-chair of Arnold Ventures; Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner Pablo José Hernández; and Secretary Sebastián Negrón of the Department of Economic Development and Commerce. Panel discussions examined the evolution of Puerto Rico’s economy and the need to strengthen its policy institutions.
“Courageous leadership. Evidence-based policy. A culture that demands proof of what works. That’s how we achieve lasting reform that improves people’s lives,” Arnold said in her keynote address.
The event closed with a call to strengthen Puerto Rico’s capacity for independent, data-based research, an effort, organizers said, is essential to promoting sustainable growth and democratic accountability.
