Comrades in the Family? Soviet Communism and Informal Family Insurance

Joan Costa-Font and Nici?ska, Anna ()
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Nici?ska, Anna: University of Warsaw
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Anna Nicińska ()

No 13850, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We study the effect of exposure to communism (EC), a political-economic regime based on collectivist planning, on preferences for family supports, which we refer to as 'informal family insurance'. We exploit both cross-country and cohort variation in EC in a large sample of Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC). Against the backdrop that 'communism gives rise to the abolition of the family', we find robust evidence that EC strengthens the preference for family insurance which coexists with a stronger preference for social insurance. We find a six per cent increase in preferences for care to older parents and a four per cent increase in preferences for support to pre-school children and financial support to adult children. These effects are explained by the erosion of both generalized trust and the lower confidence in public institutions, suggesting that (raising uncertainty and adversity during) communism increased the demand for all types of available insurance.

Keywords: confidence in institutions; interpersonal trust; social insurance; family networks; informal family insurance; Soviet communism; Eastern Europe (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: P3 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 170 pages
Date: 2020-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ias and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published - published in: Kyklos , 2023, 76 (4), 526-612

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Related works:
Journal Article: Comrades in the family? Soviet communism and demand for family insurance (2023)
Working Paper: Comrades in the Family? Soviet Communism and Informal Family Insurance (2020)
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