Stalin and the origins of mistrust

Nikolova, M., Popova, O., and V. Otrachshenko, Stalin and the Origins of Mistrust, GLO Discussion Paper no. 344, April 2019.

The paper by IOS economists Olga Popova and Vladimir Otrachshenko is featured by the Global Labor Organization (GLO) as a discussion paper of the month.
The paper shows that current differences in trust levels within former Soviet Union countries can be traced back to the system of forced prison labor during Stalin’s rule. The authors find that individuals who live near former gulags have low levels of social and institutional trust.

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