Communism as the unhappy coming

Simeon Djankov and Elena Nikolova

No 8399, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: This paper shows that Eastern Orthodox believers are less happy compared with Catholics and Protestants using data covering more than 100 countries around the world. Consistent with the happiness results, the paper also finds that relative to Catholics, Protestants, and non-believers, those of Eastern Orthodox religion have less social capital and prefer old ideas and safe jobs. In addition, Orthodoxy is associated with left-leaning political preferences and stronger support for government involvement in the economy. Compared with non-believers and Orthodox adherents, Catholics and Protestants are less likely to agree that government ownership is a good thing, and Protestants are less likely to agree that getting rich can only happen at the expense of others. These differences in life satisfaction and other attitudes and values persisted despite the fact that communist elites sought to eradicate church-going in Eastern Europe, since communists maintained many aspects of Orthodox theology which were useful for the advancement of the communist doctrine. The findings are consistent with Berdyaev's hypothesis that communism is a successor of Orthodoxy.

Keywords: Educational Sciences; Armed Conflict; Health Care Services Industry; Food Security; Public Sector Administrative and Civil Service Reform; Economics and Finance of Public Institution Development; Public Sector Administrative&Civil Service Reform; Democratic Government; State Owned Enterprise Reform; De Facto Governments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-04-03
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Communism as the unhappy coming (2018)
Working Paper: Communism as the unhappy coming (2018)
Working Paper: Communism as the Unhappy Coming (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:8399

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