For some Cubans, the new laws will just legalize what is already going on in the black market. But the government also seemed interested in encouraging consolidation among small entrepreneurs. The new laws call for lower tax rates for co-ops than for self-employed workers. That means barbers or fishermen or carpenters who now work as individuals will have an incentive to join co-ops, companies in which each worker has a vote.

The new laws also say that co-ops can be formed with as few as three people, and that in addition to converting state businesses into co-ops — with first preference given to workers already there — co-ops will be able to bid for leases of idle government properties.

The co-ops “will not be administratively subordinated to any state entity,” the government said in a summary of the laws in Granma, the state-run newspaper. But the government will play a large role in determining who gets the chance to open businesses. Workers seeking to start co-ops must submit applications that go to local government offices that pass them up to the Council of Ministers, which includes President Raúl Castro, for approval.

It is not yet clear whether higher-skilled professionals, like architects or doctors, will be able to form co-ops. Philip Peters, a Cuba expert at the Lexington Institute, a nonpartisan policy group, said that initially the co-ops would probably fill a gap in basic services, like transportation for farm products. He predicted co-ops would most likely reduce the likelihood of theft.