Double-Edged Sword: Persistent Effects of Communism on Life Satisfaction

Vladimir Otrachshenko (), Milena Nikolova and Olga Popova
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Vladimir Otrachshenko: National Bank of Slovakia (NBS)

No 14712, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Communism was a two-edged sword for the trustees of the former regime. Communist party members and their relatives enjoyed status and privileges, while secret police informants were often coerced to work clandestinely and gather compromising materials about friends, colleagues, and neighbors. We examine the long-term consequences of such connections to the communist regime for life satisfaction in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. We also calculate a monetary equivalent of those effects and empirically test mechanisms. The findings underscore that past communist regime connections have a persistent but differential effect on life satisfaction.

Keywords: elite networks; Communist regime; historical legacy; Eastern Europe; former Soviet Union; life satisfaction; Communist party; informants (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D60 I31 N00 P26 P36 P52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43 pages
Date: 2021-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cis, nep-hap and nep-isf
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published - revised version published in: Journal of Population Economics , 2023, 36(3), 1139–1185

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Working Paper: Double-edged sword: Persistent effects of Communism on life satisfaction (2021)
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