Officially Despised Yet Tolerated: Open-air Markets and Entrepreneurship in Post-socialist Countries

This article examines the entrepreneurial activity at open-air markets (OAMs) in post-socialist countries. Based on interviews and observations of 65 traders at the largest OAM in the Baltics, we address the following questions: (a) To what extent can these traders be considered productive entrepreneurs? and (b) What unique functions do OAMs fulfil in the post-socialist environment? Our analysis indicates that, based on our working definition of entrepreneurship in transition countries, we consider these traders to be entrepreneurs. In addition, we identify a number of important social, political and economic roles that OAM traders fulfil in the transition environment.