Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/51518 
Year of Publication: 
2006
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 579
Publisher: 
Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department, Washington, DC
Abstract: 
To what extent do imposed institutions shape preferences? We consider this issue by comparing the market-versus-state attitudes of respondents from a capitalist country, Finland, and an ex-communist group of Baltic countries, and by arguing that the period of communist rule can be viewed as an 'experiment' in institutional imposition. We find that, consistent with some earlier related work, citizens from ex-communist countries tend to be more supportive of state ownership than respondents from capitalist economies. However, they also favor increasing inequality and competition as the means to enhance incentives. We conclude that, in some important relevant dimensions, institutional imposition (which lasted for about 50 years) had a limited effect on preferences. The lessons for Latin America are straightforward.
Subjects: 
Institutions
markets versus state
redistributional preferences
JEL: 
P30
P51
D30
D02
I31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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