Religion and economic attitudes in postcommunist transition

ENThe role of religion has been discussed as a possible explanation of divergent economic development ever since Max Weber. This article examines its role in the postcommunist transition. It adopts the approach of Guiso et al. which is based on data collected at the individual level rather than a cross-country analysis. However, with regard to recent literature we allow for a different interpretation of results. The analysis shows that religion still has an impact on individuals’ economic attitudes, even after many decades of communist rule. Generally, religion is supportive of pro-market and pro-growth attitudes. The impact of different religions is not uniform, although none of them appears to be an obstacle in transition from a centrally planned economy to the free market. Further, the micro-level findings are compared with the macro-level to explain the differences in the course of transition among post-communist countries.