IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/soceco/v47y2013icp136-146.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cultural impact on national economic growth

Author

Listed:
  • Maridal, J. Haavard

Abstract

Following Fukuyama's (2001) postulation for future research in economic development, this paper examines the cultural hypothesis regarding national economic prosperity. Culture is found to affect economic performance through two channels; cultural traits that stimulate individual motivation, and traits that develop social capital in the population. Culture is defined as a society's beliefs and value system and operationalized through the use of variables from the World Values Survey (WVS). The analysis controls for factors commonly recognized in the economic growth literature. The results are sustained through a sensitivity analysis using a variant of extreme bounds analysis (EBA). Compared with previous empirical studies, this research deepens the cultural analysis, increases the number of observations, and lengthens the time period studied.

Suggested Citation

  • Maridal, J. Haavard, 2013. "Cultural impact on national economic growth," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 136-146.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:47:y:2013:i:c:p:136-146
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2012.08.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053535712000960
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socec.2012.08.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Enrico Spolaore & Romain Wacziarg, 2013. "How Deep Are the Roots of Economic Development?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 51(2), pages 325-369, June.
    2. Robert M. Solow, 1956. "A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 70(1), pages 65-94.
    3. Steven Tadelis & Oliver E.Williamson, 2012. "Transaction Cost Economics [The Handbook of Organizational Economics]," Introductory Chapters,, Princeton University Press.
    4. Daniel Cohen & Marcelo Soto, 2007. "Growth and human capital: good data, good results," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 51-76, March.
    5. Douglass C. North, 1991. "Institutions," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 97-112, Winter.
    6. Douglass C. North, 1990. "A Transaction Cost Theory of Politics," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 2(4), pages 355-367, October.
    7. Charles F. Manski, 2000. "Economic Analysis of Social Interactions," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 115-136, Summer.
    8. Tabellini, Guido, 2007. "Culture and Institutions," CEPR Discussion Papers 6589, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Russell S. Sobel & Christopher J. Coyne, 2011. "Cointegrating Institutions: The Time-Series Properties of Country Institutional Measures," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(1), pages 111-134.
    10. Guido Tabellini, 2010. "Culture and Institutions: Economic Development in the Regions of Europe," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 677-716, June.
    11. Levine, Ross & Renelt, David, 1992. "A Sensitivity Analysis of Cross-Country Growth Regressions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(4), pages 942-963, September.
    12. Greif, Avner, 1994. "Cultural Beliefs and the Organization of Society: A Historical and Theoretical Reflection on Collectivist and Individualist Societies," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(5), pages 912-950, October.
    13. Alessandra Fogli & Raquel Fernandez, 2009. "Culture: An Empirical Investigation of Beliefs, Work, and Fertility," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 146-177, January.
    14. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2006. "Does Culture Affect Economic Outcomes?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(2), pages 23-48, Spring.
    15. Rabin, Matthew, 1993. "Incorporating Fairness into Game Theory and Economics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(5), pages 1281-1302, December.
    16. North, Douglass C., 1971. "Institutional Change and Economic Growth," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 31(1), pages 118-125, March.
    17. Greif,Avner, 2006. "Institutions and the Path to the Modern Economy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521671347.
    18. Guido Tabellini, 2007. "Institutions and Culture," Working Papers 330, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
    19. Guido Tabellini, 2008. "The Scope of Cooperation: Values and Incentives," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(3), pages 905-950.
    20. R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), 1989. "Handbook of Industrial Organization," Handbook of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    21. Edward L. Glaeser & Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2004. "Do Institutions Cause Growth?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 271-303, September.
    22. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1988. "On the mechanics of economic development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 3-42, July.
    23. D. W. Jorgenson & Z. Griliches, 1967. "The Explanation of Productivity Change," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 34(3), pages 249-283.
    24. Marini, Matteo, 2004. "Cultural evolution and economic growth: a theoretical hypothesis with some empirical evidence," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 765-784, December.
    25. George A. Akerlof & Rachel E. Kranton, 2000. "Economics and Identity," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 715-753.
    26. Altman, Morris, 2001. "Culture, human agency, and economic theory: culture as a determinant of material welfare," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 379-391.
    27. R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), 1989. "Handbook of Industrial Organization," Handbook of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 2, number 2.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Coccia, Mario, 2014. "Socio-cultural origins of the patterns of technological innovation: What is the likely interaction among religious culture, religious plurality and innovation? Towards a theory of socio-cultural drive," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 13-25.
    2. Burhan, Nik Ahmad Sufian & Mohamad, Mohd Rosli & Kurniawan, Yohan & Sidek, Abdul Halim, 2014. "National Intelligence, Basic Human Needs, and Their Effect on Economic Growth," MPRA Paper 77267, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Kostakis, Ioannis & Lolos, Sarantis & Doulgeraki, Charikleia, 2020. "Cultural Heritage led Growth: Regional evidence from Greece (1998-2016)," MPRA Paper 98443, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Kim, Eun-Hee & Kim, Yeonbae, 2021. "Moving beyond the dichotomy of Hall & Soskice (2001): the State’s Role in economic growth," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 530-548.
    5. van Hoorn, André, 2018. "The use of identity primes to explain behavioral differences between groups: A methodological note," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 146-150.
    6. Paul Eliccel, 2016. "Culture and Accumulation of Capital : An Empirical study in the Context Haitian Society [Culture et accumulation du capital : une étude empirique dans le contexte social haïtien]," Working Papers hal-01555285, HAL.
    7. Dang, Huong & Partington, Graham, 2020. "Sovereign ratings and national culture," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    8. Tianjiao Qiu, 2018. "Influence Of Cultural Practices On Social Support Of Female Entrepreneurs' Startups," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(01), pages 1-21, March.
    9. Eliccel Paul, 2017. "Culture et accumulation du capital : une étude empirique dans le contexte social haïtien," Working Papers hal-01567104, HAL.
    10. Ozbugday, Fatih Cemil, 2019. "Kültür ve Ekonomik Başarı [Culture and Economic Success]," MPRA Paper 96734, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Castellani, Marco, 2019. "Does culture matter for the economic performance of countries? An overview of the literature," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 700-717.
    12. Syed Waqar Akbar & Ajid Ur Rehman & Imran Arshad & Waseem Abbas Shaheen, 2024. "From Theory to Practice: Examining the True Impact of Institutional Quality on Innovation Commercialization," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 13(1), pages 8-21.
    13. Mario Coccia, 2017. "General purpose technologies in dynamic systems: visual representation and analyses of complex drivers," IRCrES Working Paper 201705, CNR-IRCrES Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth - Moncalieri (TO) ITALY - former Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Torino (TO) ITALY.
    14. Mario COCCIA, 2017. "The Fishbone diagram to identify, systematize and analyze the sources of general purpose technologies," Journal of Social and Administrative Sciences, KSP Journals, vol. 4(4), pages 291-303, December.
    15. Haavard Maridal, J. & Palich, Les & Morgan, Grant & Gardner, Steven & McKinney, Joe & Bolbocean, Corneliu, 2018. "Wellbeing Indices: A Comprehensive Inventory of Standards and a Review of Current Comparative Measures," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 1-11.
    16. Mohammad Nurunnabi, 2018. "Tax evasion and religiosity in the Muslim world: the significance of Shariah regulation," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 371-394, January.
    17. Haifei Wang & Hongjun Wu & Peter Humphreys, 2022. "Chinese Merchant Group Culture, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Cost of Debt: Evidence from Private Listed Firms in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-18, February.
    18. Pham, Hien Thuc & Carmignani, Fabrizio & Kler, Parvinder, 2018. "Thrift culture and the size of government," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 571-578.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yasir Khan & Attiya Yasmin Javid, 2015. "The Impact of Formal and Informal Institutions on Economic Performance: A Cross-Country Analysis," PIDE-Working Papers 2015:130, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    2. Dobler, Constanze, 2009. "The impact of institutions, culture, and religion on per capita income," Violette Reihe: Schriftenreihe des Promotionsschwerpunkts "Globalisierung und Beschäftigung" 28/2009, University of Hohenheim, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Evangelisches Studienwerk.
    3. Engelhardt, Sebastian v. & Freytag, Andreas, 2013. "Institutions, culture, and open source," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 90-110.
    4. Alesina, Alberto & Giuliano, Paola, 2014. "Family Ties," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 4, pages 177-215, Elsevier.
    5. Castellani, Marco, 2019. "Does culture matter for the economic performance of countries? An overview of the literature," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 700-717.
    6. Guido Tabellini, 2008. "The Scope of Cooperation: Values and Incentives," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(3), pages 905-950.
    7. Guido Tabellini, 2007. "Institutions and Culture," Working Papers 330, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
    8. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2016. "Long-Term Persistence," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 14(6), pages 1401-1436, December.
    9. Kostakis, Ioannis & Lolos, Sarantis & Doulgeraki, Charikleia, 2020. "Cultural Heritage led Growth: Regional evidence from Greece (1998-2016)," MPRA Paper 98443, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Sascha O. Becker & Katrin Boeckh & Christa Hainz & Ludger Woessmann, 2016. "The Empire Is Dead, Long Live the Empire! Long‐Run Persistence of Trust and Corruption in the Bureaucracy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(590), pages 40-74, February.
    11. Algan, Yann & Cahuc, Pierre, 2014. "Trust, Growth, and Well-Being: New Evidence and Policy Implications," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 2, pages 49-120, Elsevier.
    12. Anna Gunnthorsdottir & Douglas A. Norton, 2018. "Introduction to Experimental Economics and Culture," Research in Experimental Economics, in: Experimental Economics and Culture, volume 20, pages 1-24, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    13. Karaja, Elira & Rubin, Jared, 2022. "Θ The cultural transmission of trust norms: Evidence from a lab in the field on a natural experiment," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 1-19.
    14. Mertzanis, Charilaos, 2017. "Family ties and access to finance in an Islamic environment," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 1-24.
    15. Petrakis, Panagiotis & Kostis, Pantelis, 2013. "Economic growth and cultural change," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 147-157.
    16. Guiso, Luigi & Herrera, Helios & Morelli, Massimo, 2016. "Cultural Differences and Institutional Integration," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(S1), pages 97-113.
    17. Silvia Bertarelli, 2006. "Public capital and growth," Politica economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 3, pages 361-398.
    18. Almas Heshmati, 2003. "Productivity Growth, Efficiency and Outsourcing in Manufacturing and Service Industries," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(1), pages 79-112, February.
    19. Nathan Nunn & Leonard Wantchekon, 2011. "The Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(7), pages 3221-3252, December.
    20. Sangnier, Marc, 2013. "Does trust favor macroeconomic stability?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 653-668.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Culture; Economic growth; Formal institutions; Informal institutions; Social capital;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
    • O43 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Institutions and Growth
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • O49 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Other
    • O57 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Comparative Studies of Countries

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:47:y:2013:i:c:p:136-146. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620175 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.