To what extent do imposed institutions shape preferences? We consider this issue by comparing the market-versus-state attitudes of respondents from a capitalist country, Finland, and an ex-communist group of Baltic countries, and by arguing that the period of communist rule can be viewed as an “experiment” in institutional imposition. We find that, consistent with some earlier related work, citizens from ex-communist countries tend to be more supportive of state ownership than respondents from capitalist economies. However, they also favor increasing inequality and competition as the means to enhance incentives. We conclude that, in some important relevant dimensions, institutional imposition (which lasted for about 50 years) had a limited effect on preferences. The lessons for Latin America are straightforward.
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Paper provided by Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department in its series RES Working Papers with number
1061.
Find related papers by JEL classification: P30 - Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - General P51 - Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - Comparative Analysis of Economic Systems D30 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - General D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, and Operations I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty - - - General Welfare
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Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1998.
"Law and Finance,"
Journal of Political Economy,
University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1113-1155, December.
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Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silane & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1996.
"Law and Finance,"
NBER Working Papers
5661, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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