Unbinding ideology: The impact of communist indoctrination revocation in polish schools on later life self-employment

Abstract

Given communist ideologies discourage individual enterprise, this research investigates whether eliminating compulsory Marxist-Leninist indoctrination from schools influences later life self-employment. Focusing on a mid-1950s reform in Poland that revoked the Communist indoctrination curriculum while holding other aspects constant, the study leverages variation in exposure based on annual school enrollment cut-off birthdates. Contrary to expectation, the empirical analysis finds no discernible effect of indoctrination removal on later-life self-employment. Additionally, the study examines whether Polish immigrants exposed to reform and arriving in the US after 1960 exhibit increased self-employment propensity, but finds no significant differences. Overall, the study's findings highlight negligible impacts of the revocation of Communist indoctrination in Polish schools on self-employment.