13:30
Birkbeck, University of London
November 11
Online
When: — Venue: Online
We are pleased to announce the 3rd Seminar Series on Governance, Institutions, and Sustainability jointly hosted by the Centre for Political Economy and Institutional Studies and by the Birkbeck Responsible Business Centre, within the Birkbeck Business School.
In our rapidly evolving world, the intricate web connecting governance, institutions, and sustainability has become increasingly prominent. We invite scholars, researchers, and practitioners to enhance this very important debate and to join us in exploring the profound intertwining of these critical elements at our upcoming seminar series.
Abstract
Privilege, resulting from socio-political status, exists in every society. However, little is known about the market returns to access to privilege and networks. At the same time, in Communist societies, membership in a single Communist Party (CP) allows identifying individuals and their family members as a part of a ‘network of privilege,’ while traditional forms of access to privileges, such as formal markets or wealth inheritance, are not available. Leveraging on this unique experience of post-Communist countries in Eastern Europe, this paper examines whether and how access to privilege exerts human capital and wealth effects. Using a plausible instrumental variable strategy and drawing on the different CP network connections in a long list of countries exposed to Soviet communism, we show that access to privilege substantially enhanced tertiary education attainment under Communism and provided human capital and wealth effects driven by changes in labor market outcomes and attitudes towards informal networks relevant during the transformation.
Speaker:
Olga Popova (Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies -IOS, Germany)
Convener/Organiser: Dr Luca Andriani
Contact name: Luca Andriani
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