Did Growth and Reforms Increase Citizens' Support for the Transition?

Roberto Golinelli and Riccardo Rovelli

No 5836, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

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.

Keywords: support for reforms; political economy; post-communist transition; economic reforms; economic performance; public opinion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O11 O57 P2 P36 P52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2011-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec and nep-pol
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Published - revised version published in: European Journal of Political Economy, 2013, 30, 112-137

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Related works:
Journal Article: Did growth and reforms increase citizens' support for the transition? (2013)
Working Paper: Did Growth and Reforms Increase Citizens Support for the Transition? (2011)
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