Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/51836 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5836
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
How did post-communist transformations affect people's perceptions of their economic and political systems? We model a pseudo-panel with 89 country-year clusters, based on 13 countries observed between 1991 and 2004, to identify the macro and institutional drivers of the public opinion. Our main findings are: (i) When the economy is growing, on average people appreciate more extensive reforms; they dislike unbalanced reforms. (ii) Worsening of income distribution and higher inflation interact with an increasing share of the private sector in aggravating nostalgia for the past regime. (iii) Cross-country differences in the attitudes towards the present and future (both in the economic and political dimensions) are largely explained by differences in the institutional indicators for the rule of law and corruption. (iv) Cross-country differences in the extent of nostalgia towards the past are mainly related to differences in the deterioration of standards of living.
Subjects: 
political economy
post-communist transition
economic reforms
economic performance
support for reforms
public opinion
JEL: 
O11
O57
P2
P36
P52
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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