Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, the North Caucasus is known as a politically unstable region and as a melting pot for terrorism and all kinds of criminal activity, reaching from drugtrafficking and illegal arms trade to hijacking and extortion. Furthermore, the North Caucasus is one of...

In their survey of the literature on ethnic fractionalization and economic performance, Alesina and La Ferrara (JEL 2005) identify two main directions for future research. One is to improve the measurement of diversity and the other to treat diversity as an endogenous variable. This paper tries...

In their survey of the literature on ethnic fractionalization and economic performance, Alesina and La Ferrara (JEL 2005) identify two main directions for future research. One is to improve the measurement of diversity and the other to treat diversity as an endogenous variable. This paper tries...

Using the 2010 Life in Transition Survey, this paper studies the association between local religious diversity and individual entrepreneurial behavior in 29 transition countries. We find that localities with higher religious diversity have more respondents who have tried to set up a business....

Economic transition lowered happiness on average, but did not affect all equally. This paper uses Hungarian survey data to study the impact of religion and economic transition on happiness. Religious involvement contributes positively to individuals' self-reported well-being. Controlling for...

In the years immediately preceding and certainly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union there was a widespread increase in the practice of religious faith traditions. Multiple studies document the post-communist religious revival (Evans & Northmore-Ball, 2012; Müller, 2011; Sarkissian, 2009; Tomka,...

This paper focuses on the effects of reforms and religion on happiness in transition economies. Previous literature suggests that religiousness insures happiness against individual stressful life events, such as unemployment, disability, or marital separation. I estimate an econometric model to...

This paper looks at public support for the creation of a market economy in Eastern Europe. As a data base, the Central and Eastern Eurobarometers surveys are employed, covering up to 21 countries over a time period of 1990-96 and totalling more than 100000 observations on individuals. The...

The paper emphasizes the transition in Russia and the role institutions played before and during the process. In Russia, a big bang approach was applied. That is to say, transition was conducted all of a sudden, omitting important underlying reforms. This practice should function as a shock...

The importance of new firm creation in the post-Communist economies of East Central Europe (ECE) has been subject to extensive research. This paper focuses on an area of entrepreneurship which has received relatively little attention in the transition economy context but which is of particular...