Long-lasting effects of indoctrination in school: Evidence from the People’s Republic of Poland

Abstract

This paper studies the effect of communist indoctrination in school on labour force participation and human capital investments. Specifically, we evaluate the impact of a reform in Poland that revoked political indoctrination in school in the mid-1950s, while leaving the rest of the curriculum unchanged. To overcome endogeneity concerns, we exploit cut-off birth dates for school enrolment that exhibit variation in the level of exposure to the reform. We find that a reduction in school indoctrination increased the probability of finishing secondary and tertiary education, and expanded labour force participation about 50 years down the line.