Religion and economic attitudes in post-communist transition

Abstract

The role of religion has been discussed as a possible explanation of divergent economic development ever since Max Weber. This article examines its role in the post-communist transition. It adopts the approach of Guiso et al. which is based on data collected at the individual level rather than a cross-country analysis. However, with regard to recent literature we allow for a different interpretation of results. The analysis shows that religion still has an impact on individuals' economic attitudes, even after many decades of communist rule. Generally, religion is supportive of pro-market and pro-growth attitudes. The impact of different religions is not uniform, although none of them appears to be an obstacle in transition from a centrally planned economy to the free market. Further, the micro-level findings are compared with the macro-level to explain the differences in the course of transition among post-communist countries.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Alberto Cassone, Pavel Chalupníček, David Lipka and Giovanni Ramello for their comments and suggestions. This project was conducted during my studies on the IEL programme in Turin, Italy.

Notes

^1. Several regions are treated separately, namely Serbia and Montenegro (both formerly in Yugoslavia), Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Bosnian Federation (both are parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina) and East Germany.

^2. Although there exist non-theist religions as well, they do not have a significant number of adherents in any of the post-communist countries. We may therefore ignore the fact that belief in God is not essential in some religions.

^3. Although it is not impossible for a member of a minority religion to became an authoritarian ruler, as documented by Saddam Hussein in Iraq or Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

^4. Full regression results are available from the author on request.