Culture, democracy, and market reforms: Evidence from transition countries

Transition countries differed widely in the extent to which they implemented market reforms. This paper empirically investigates the role of culture as a potential determinant of market reform adoption among the post-socialist economies of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. I examine an unbalanced panel of up to 21 transition countries over the period 19892001 and estimate the relationship between different cultural typologies and the adoption of liberalizing reforms. I report that a sense of individualism and intolerance for unequal dispersion of power within societies are robustly associated with greater market reform efforts. Only limited evidence exists for the influence of other cultural attitudes. Journal of Comparative Economics 45 (2017) 456-480. Department of Economics, College of Business and Economics, West Virginia University, 1601 University Avenue, PO Box 6025, Morgantown, WV 26506-6025, United States. (C) 2017 Association for Comparative Economic Studies. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.