Economic Freedom and Antisemitism

Niclas Berggren and Therese Nilsson ()

No 1357, Working Paper Series from Research Institute of Industrial Economics

Abstract: We examine how variation in antisemitism across countries can be explained by economic freedom. We propose two mechanisms. First, the more economic freedom, the greater the scope of market activities. If people perceive the consequences of the market economy as detrimental, they will be more hostile towards those seen as mainly responsible. If Jews are seen as such, this implies that a greater reliance on markets increases antisemitism. Second, a key type of institution undergirding the market is an effective and fair legal system, or the rule of law. The stronger the rule of law, the smaller the risk for exploitative behaviour, and the less hostile people will be towards groups seen as exploiters. If Jews are seen as such, more economic freedom reduces antisemitism. We use the ADL Global 100 survey of antisemitic attitudes and relate them, for up to 106 countries, to the Economic Freedom of the World index and its five areas. Our empirical findings confirm the two predictions: The more economic openness, the more antisemitism; and the stronger the rule of law, the less antisemitism. These findings indicate a complex relationship between markets and attitudes towards Jews.

Keywords: Markets; Economic freedom; Tolerance; Globalization; Jews; Antisemitism; Racism; Persecution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D02 D63 F10 F20 F30 J15 K40 P14 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 60 pages
Date: 2020-09-24
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Journal Article: Economic freedom and antisemitism (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1357

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