Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/180612 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 11594
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We study the effect of former Communist party membership on paying bribes to public officials and motivations for bribery, 25 years after the fall of communist rule. Data come from a large representative survey, conducted in post-socialist countries in 2015/16. To deal with endogeneity, we instrument party membership with information on whether family members were affected by the Second World War. Instrumental variable results suggest that links to the former Communist party increase the likelihood of paying bribes today; this result applies to the former party members as well as their children and relatives. Among bribe payers, people with the party links are more likely to offer bribes as well as think that bribe payments are expected. Overall, our findings suggest that the proclivity to corruption of the former Communist party members has been transmitted through family and thus sustained over time, contributing to corruption decades after the demise of the Socialist bloc.
Subjects: 
corruption
Communist party
political elite
post-socialist countries
path dependency
JEL: 
D73
P37
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
513.78 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.