This dissertation comprises three essays that contribute to the social reproduction literature by using it as a framework to analyze Global South and “in transition” contexts while inquiring on the role of the state in shaping and directly contributing to social reproduction processes. Chapter 1 uses time-use data to explore the relationship between institutional and non-parental childcare provision on maternal unpaid time use in Ecuador. Results suggest that institutional and kinship childcare presents a complementary relationship for mothers’ active unpaid care time, while female kinship is associated with significant reductions in maternal time regarding supervisory childcare and housework. The size of the effects suggests that out-of-home childcare is associated with greater reductions for mothers with no co-resident adult female kin. Chapter 2, co-authored with Katherine Moos, proposes an accounting framework for understanding the distributional role of household production, employment, remittances, and government social transfers in the social reproduction of the Cuban people, and provide a snapshot for 2016. Our findings demonstrate that households were viii the largest contributors to social reproduction in Cuba. Our empirical exercise reveals how the actual distributional arrangements underlying Cuban social reproduction differ from the official commitments and goals of the Cuban Revolution. The relative contributions in 2016 signal several potentially unsustainable self-reinforcing dynamics that undermine efforts to achieve gender and racial equality on the Island. Chapter 3 asks how the economic and social reform processes of the post-2010s Cuba have redistributed the costs of social reproduction among the State, the market, and the family, particularly regarding the caring of dependents. I examine the transformations in unpaid and paid work, government benefits, and remittances using legal and policy changes and their implementation. Results demonstrate that the reproductive bargain in post-2010s Cuba has explicitly changed, acquiring a transnational dimension. The analysis shows that the reform policies have shifted the responsibilities of social reproduction more onto households and that increasing commodification of social reproduction processes has occurred, with adverse consequences for women. De-statization processes have followed as a combination of direct withdrawal of the government’s role as a social provider and less state presence in other socio-economic affairs.